Admission Unpeeled

nín hǎo - 您好 from Beijing!

2011-09-16T13:45:00.000-07:00

The following note was received from our VP Angel Pérez this past Monday, September 12th, 2011:

I just wanted to let you know that I made it safely to Beijing. All went smoothly(except for the trials of getting all those view books here...
but they made it).

I landed Sunday night around midnight (it's now Monday morning). The folks from the Pitzer study abroad center here are taking me to lunch (and some Pitzer students will join me), then it's off to the races! The program begins with a big fair and info session tonight and then we visit high schools each day and put on a big evening event at hotels. We also have a big event at the American
embassy that includes time for Chinese media to interview us.

It's going to be a busy week, but all very exciting and great for Pitzer.

Cheers,

Angel

Angel B. Pérez
Interim Vice President for Admission and Financial Aid

How Many Viewbooks Can You Fit in a Suitcase...

2011-09-08T10:16:00.000-07:00

1,000!!!

Angel B. Pérez, Interim Vice President for Admission and Financial Aid, packs 1,000 Pitzer Viewbooks for his trip to CHINA!!!

Travel Season=Mileage Points

2011-09-07T09:52:00.000-07:00

Ever wonder how admission counselors do all the traveling they do? Mileage points obviously! No but seriously, admission counselors spend days, weeks, sometimes months away from family and friends as we hop on one plan after another. There have been times when I had forgotten what time zone I was in because I had been traveling for so long. It's great in the beginning (especially for new counselors), but if we don't take care of ourselves on the road... it can be a lonnnng fall travel season.

That's why I make the most of my travel. This is a time for me to step away from the office and take advantage of the opportunity for self-reflection and a much needed break. Now I am not saying that travel in the admissions world is all fun and games (but you can include some of it when appropriate), but fall travel allows many of us to step out of our comfort zones, take the road less traveled, get lost because of wrong directions from the GPS (believe me it has happened to us all), experience exciting new places and most importantly, spread the message about our respective institutions.

This will be my second year on the road and I am more than excited! The first time around new admission counselors make mistakes (I mean come on we are all human) and we learn what worked well... and maybe what did not work so well. This fall (or this weekend actually) I will be visiting some familiar places (Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, Washington, etc.) and some new places as well (West Los Angeles, San Fernando Valley, along with Santa Barbara & Ventura Counties).

So wish me luck as I finish packing for my first trip of the season (HOTlanta... I mean Atlanta!). I can assure you that the core values of Pitzer will always be my "guiding light" this travel season. From all of us here at the Pitzer College Office of Admission: HAPPY TRAVEL SEASON... TIS THE SEASON (well a different season at least).

Welcome to the Class of 2015

2011-08-31T10:08:00.000-07:00

Move-In Day
Incoming students moved into their rooms the morning of August 20, 2011.

Walking up the stairs of Pitzer Hall.

It has to all fit into that room...

Welcome Day/Meet Your Mentor/Faculty Meet & Greet

Welcome Week Opening Day was a full day of activities including mentor meetings, welcome programs for incoming students and parents, a barbecue on The Mounds, and the Faculty Welcome, a Pitzer tradition.

Santiago Ybarra, Associate Director of Admission and Danny Irving, Assistant Director of Admission give new students their information packets.

Angel B. Pérez, Interim Vice President for Admission and Financial Aid welcomes the Class of 2015.

Resident Assistant Tim Williamson with a big thumbs up!

After moving into their residence halls, new students met with their mentors and RAs and met with their Orientation Adventure trip leaders.

President Laura Skandera Trombley greets a new student while Professor of Political Studies and Chicano/a Studies Adrian Pantoja and Professor of Philosophy Brian Keeley look on.

It's Liberal Arts College Party Time!

2011-07-21T12:15:00.000-07:00

It's Liberal Arts College Party Time!
By Laura Skandera Trombley
Posted: 7/21/11 11:35 am

Every college president's heartbeat quickens whenever a reporter from a major media outlet calls to have a chat. Of course you always hope they're calling because they've just realized how utterly fabulous your institution is and they want to sing your praises to the wider world and stress the importance of a liberal arts college education and the kind of transformational experience your students have. However, that is rarely the case. In fact, after having been president of Pitzer College for nine years, I can tell you that has rarely been the case.

Recently, an article appeared in Bloomberg News with the subtle headline, "Bowdoin says no need for SAT while buying College Board Scores." Oh my! While I've never spent much time worrying about decisions made at Bowdoin (although I do applaud them in making the SAT optional as Pitzer College did in 2003), clearly something must be amiss. What are they up to in Maine?

When I was contacted by the reporter, I took her call, as I always do, and after two quite long and extensive conversations (presidents love to sing the praises of their institutions), imagine my dismay when I found that our entire conversation had been boiled down into an inarticulate 19 words in the article. The crux of the reporter's story is that colleges who have made the SAT optional are wicked because they purchase names and addresses of students who've done well on the SAT from the College Board, owner of the SAT. When that thesis was proposed to me, my immediate response was that I saw no contradiction because we also buy lists of students based demographic and academic interests which are in line with our programs. Other colleges buy lists based on their own specifications of student demographic they believe will be a good fit for their institutions.

When Pitzer College decided to go SAT optional, we did so because we felt we had been excluding a whole group of students who perhaps did not perform particularly well on standardized tests but excelled in their academic pursuits and we wanted to reach out to as many potential students as possible. Current students wanted to be assured that if they scored highly on the SAT, this wouldn't work against them. And so, in a moment of opening our arms to all so that we could recruit the finest, most "Pitzeresque" class possible, the faculty, staff, students and Trustees ultimately voted to make the SAT optional so that everyone could be considered as a potential future Pitzer alumni.

Now this issue of purchasing mailing lists is in my view really a straw dog. I don't know about you, but when I throw a party I like to send invitations to the guests. This is what our admission office does in purchasing lists. We run tours 364 days out of the year, present at college fairs, visit high schools and yes, we try to get the names of as many college-bound students as we possibly can. I guess we could place giant advertisements in publications like Bloomberg, but I doubt that would result in an appreciable return. And while the College Board is the only provider mentioned in the story, there are many others that schools routinely use in order to enlarge their mailing lists such as Cappex, Peterson's and Zinch. And why do we go through all this effort? Because I happen to think we are the best liberal arts college in the country and every student in high school should learn more about us because what we do is very, very special indeed.

While I understand that it's always a good thing to make news, sometimes there just isn't news to make out of the pieces that you're trying to put together.

In response to being asked whether I thought our increase in selectivity as well as our rise in U.S. News & World Report coincided with making the SAT optional, my response was that if it were that easy I would quit my job as a college president and go hit the road as a consultant and make millions offering that rather simplistic and reductionist advice. Trust me. Success never comes without substantive effort.

When I arrived as president in 2002, Pitzer was ranked 70th by U.S. News. We saw a dramatic jump the following year, not due to the fact that we had made the SAT optional, but because we had actually started filling out the forms and sending them back. Go figure. The reason that probably holds the most water in terms of our dramatic increase of 31 percent in the total number of applications over the last nine years, which has translated into making us one of the most selective colleges in the U.S., has to do with several factors. Perhaps making the SAT optional did encourage additional applications, however, at the same time, there was an increase in the demographic of high school aged students entering college and the common application went online, which allows students with a click of the button to apply to not just one or two but 10 to 15 institutions.

Simultaneously, Pitzer College engaged in a sustainable building program, which will ultimately make all our residence halls gold and platinum LEED certified, that has garnered an enormous amount of attention from the media and for the past six years we have been ranked number one for Fulbright Fellowships per thousand students. We have exciting academic programs such as our socially responsible documentary filmmaking program and our environmental analysis program. All of these aspects work together to create an institution that students become excited about and want to attend.

So, was I disappointed in the story? Not really. It was evident to me from the start what the angle was. Never fear, if you are interested in hearing a really great story drop by Pitzer College for a visit because anyone who loves the liberal arts is always welcome to my party.

To read this article, please visit: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/laura-skandera-trombley/its-liberal-arts-college-_b_905713.html

Inside College Admissions: Pitzer College

2011-07-19T09:55:00.000-07:00

Inside College Admissions: Pitzer College
by Rebecca Green

Jul 13, 2011

We interviewed Admissions Director Angel Pérez to get the inside scoop on applying to Pitzer College, a Claremont College known for community service and study abroad.

Noodle Education: What’s one great insider tip for students hoping to get into Pitzer College?
Angel Pérez: Pitzer is an interesting place—did you know that testing here is optional? We don’t have the traditional method of looking at applications. We focus on making sure kids understand the mission and core values of the college. We have four core values and we look for students who are not only academically successful, but who bring those core values to life. In fact, less than half our applicant pool submits test scores.

NE: One thing that would surprise our readers about students at Pitzer is…
AP: Students are involved in every single part of the governance structure of the school from the hiring committees to the board to the finance committee (In fact 8 students were on the committee when I was being hired!) They make a real impact from faculty hiring and curriculum to finance decisions.

NE: What should I be sure to see or do on a campus visit to Pitzer?
AP: The Grove House is the center of campus life. It’s an old 1800s structure that was brought to the campus from Pomona. It’s got an organic café, open-mike night, a place for outdoor classes – it’s a little slice of heaven. They make cookies that are so good, my friends who are guidance counselors ask me to send them cookies from the Grove House. I’d also recommend a visit to the on-campus garden that’s maintained by our students—there are chickens running around and it’s a big part of our sustainability values.

NE: What is one thing students should NOT do when applying to your school?
AP: Well, watch out for the cut & paste—I recently got a letter from a student telling me why she wanted to get off the waitlist for Skidmore. But more importantly, when you’re writing your essay, if you’re writing about someone else, make sure to bring it back to you. It’s a big mistake that students make to tell us why their grandmother had an impact on them, then write all about their grandmothers, but never get back to how she impacted them.

NE: I’ve just been waitlisted at Pitzer. Any advice?
AP: Number 1: Send that card back! If we don’t receive that postcard, we assume you’re not interested. I get calls all the time in May asking about the status and I tell them I assumed you weren’t interested.

Also, tell us if there’s anything new. You filled out an application in December, so let us know if there’s anything that can update your file, or an extra recommendation. (Though don’t inundate the staff.) Also, look at the website and find out who’s in charge of admissions in your territory, and communicate directly with him or her.

To read the article, please visit:
http://www.noodle.org/noodlings/college/inside-college-admissions-pitzer-college

Pitzer Tour Video

2011-07-15T09:40:00.000-07:00

Pitzer College Commencement

2011-05-14T18:04:00.000-07:00

Today we celebrate the 47th Annual Commencement Ceremony at Pitzer College. The first graduating class at Pitzer Collegeconsisted of only 3 graduates back in 1965... but today we graduate 229 seniors from a diversity of backgrounds, interests, majors, and dreams.

Chelsea Kumabe '11, D.O. Student and Office of Admission Tour Guide

Chris Moore '11, Admission Fellow

Maricela Ledezma '11, Admission Fellow and Diversity Intern

With Pitzer-Pomona Sagehen, Alexis Garcia '11

CONGRATULATIONS CLASS OF 2011

Let's Play Some Softball... Pitzer Style!

2011-05-13T19:29:00.000-07:00

Every year, faculty and staff give the seniors their last educational lesson at Pitzer College by beating them at the traditional softball game.

This year was no different. The Class of 2011 played a great game! Many of the players on the field included some of our very own Admission Fellows and student workers from the class of 2011.

About a year ago I was playing as a senior against the faculty and staff, but oh my how the tables have turned! This year I had the opportunity to roll up my sleeves, take off the tie, and take a swing at the ball... I almost made it past first base until Admission Fellow, Chris Moore '11, tagged me out! Next time Chris, next time!

Emma Fisher '11

Admission Fellows Alex Smith '11 and Ben Harris '11 put up a good fight, but that didn't last too long. Assistant Director of Admission, Danny Irving, went up to bat on behalf of the staff/faculty and how to show the seniors how it's done!

Cecil the Sagehen would have been proud to see us all playing a good game of softball!.

PZ Admitted Student Day(s) RECAP!

2011-04-25T19:58:00.001-07:00

Wow! What a crazy adventure these past two weeks have been! Our first Admitted Student Day was Friday, April 15. If that was not enough, the office of admission hosted about 25 students for our Spring Diversity Program from April 14 through the April 16. It was such an awesome series of events; from the airport pick-ups, to Santa Monica Beach, to a late night IN-N-OUT run.

Fast forward a week later... we were back at it again! The second and final Admitted Student Day, along with a second Spring Diversity Program (this one was much smaller and only occurred April 21-22). For the second Admitted Student Day, we had well over 300 guests!!! Now that has to be a record of some sort!

The entire admission and financial aide offices hope that YOU enjoyed your day at Pitzer while we rolled out "the orange carpet" for YOU and your families. REMEMBER... if you are planning on committing to Pitzer College, your commit cards AND deposits are to be post marked by MAY 2 (the 1 of May is on a Sunday).

Have you received YOUR admit packet??? Snap a photo, take a video and share it with us by sending your reactions to admission@pitzer.edu

2011-03-25T17:13:00.000-07:00

NOTE: Alyshia is one of our Diversity Interns. For more info on the Diversity Program, please visit: http://www.pitzer.edu/admission/diversity/index.asp

FINALLY!!! Reading season is over and ADMIT packets are on the way!!!

2011-03-25T16:20:00.001-07:00

After months of traveling and weeks of reading applications... the time has come! Committee is done and I can proudly say that I have successfully helped shape the future class of 2015!!!

Do you ever wonder what happens to that BIG BRIGHT ORANGE CONGRATULATIONS envelope the moment it leaves our office??? Well allow me to provide you with a quick explanation:

1. The admit packet is labeled (Alyshia is one of our Diversity Interns)

2. Fernando (our Graduate Admission Fellow) seals the envelope with lots of PZ LOVE!

3. Files are ready to leave the office.

4. Fernando poses once more with the admit packet!

5. Santiago (Associate Director) helps load the car with all the packets to be taken to the post office.

6. We (the counselors) drive to the Claremont Post Office to hand deliver the admit packets.

7. Arnaldo Rodriguez (VP of Admission & Financial Aid) helps load the mail cart.

8. And there you have it... the admit packets awaiting delivery.

HAPPY NEW YEAR... and now back to applications!

2011-01-05T10:26:00.000-08:00

"Hello friends of the Pitzer College Office of Admission. I hope you all had a wonderful holiday and enjoyed a spectacular New Years! After all of my fall travel and recruiting, I needed a break and decided to "fly the coop". Where did I go??? I headed to the only place where sagehens can relax and grab some of the best Cuban food... MIAMI!" -Cecil T. Sagehen

After a nice and peaceful winter break, we (the counseling staff) are all back in the office and ready to process those applications. Tons of mail, lots of paper cuts, and so much alphabetizing... but of course it is all worth it in the end. Being an admission counselor has helped me understand how more than ever, we need more students like YOU!

So please bare with me in the next few weeks. If you submitted an application, it is being processed at the moment thanks to our entire counseling and support staff. No need to call... that recommendation letter is NOT late, those SAT scores will arrive soon, and your transcript should be arriving any day now. What more do you have to worry about? You have done your part of the application... so just sit back, relax, continue being the rock star student you are and wait to hear back from us in the coming months.

Until then... open mail (paper cuts), alphabetize, file, etc... it's like I'm an admission robot!!! ha ha.

2010-12-17T15:34:00.000-08:00

Don't worry... Early Decision letters are on the way!

Sing it with me...

Cecil, the orange-nosed Sagehen had a very shiny nose. And if you ever saw him, you would even say it glows. All of the other Sagehens used to laugh and call him names. They never let poor Cecil join in any Sagehen Sports. Then one foggy Pitzer Eve, the Admission Dean came to say: "Cecil with your nose so bright, won't you deliver my mail tonight?" Then all the Sagehen loved him as they shouted out with glee, Cecil the orange-nosed Sagehen, you'll go down in Early Decision history!

Danny Irving, Assistant Director of Admission, lends a helping hand to help guide Cecil and the ED letters to the mail room.

2010-12-15T16:56:00.000-08:00

17 MORE DAYS...
Ok, so I don't mean to scare any of you, but just a friendly reminder that applications are DUE: JANUARY 1, 2011.

On a lighter note, I wanted to share with you all a letter that was recently written on behalf of current Pitzer Student, Michael Landsman P'12 :

A little sagehen tells me you've started to fill out your application to Pitzer but have yet to press "submit." I know senior year is busy and the college process is strangely both the most stressful and protracted experience one faces in school. In fact, I finished most of my applications on New Year's Eve! However, on the first day of that winter break I had a small panic attack while watching Juno with a friend, using my iPhone to confirm that I had indeed sent in my Pitzer app.

My freak-out was for good reason because three years later I know applying to Pitzer was one of the better decisions in my life! Pitzer might not be for everyone, but those of us here deeply love this place. You can feel it when picking figs and oranges from our garden with friends after class, when rolling down the mounds from laughter at a midmorning conversation, or grooving to homespun music on the porch of the Grove House.

However, Pitzer is more than fun and games (although we have plenty of bike polo and hoops in our year-round sunshine), it provides one of the most unique, and important, educational programs around. Today's problems and tomorrow's solutions don't divide themselves neatly into disciplinary boundaries so neither do our courses. At Pitzer, "interdisciplinary" means studying genetics with a historian and a neuroscientist, assessing the environment through politics and poetry and discussing race relations through film.

In today's global society one must be able to think across cultures, so Pitzer strives for diversity in all aspects. We get to study African politics with a professor who fled Sudan and learn about gang culture from life-long Los Angeles activists. Through Pitzer study abroad, we can explore Nepali terrestrial radio and intern with a local pundit or complete biology courses at our health clinic in Costa Rica.

Pitzer is a strong community because social responsibility is at our core. Beyond the confines of campus, Pitzer students have long-standing partnerships with local non-profits and constantly develop creative new ways to improve our shared experience. On campus, students usher changes to reduce dining hall waste, design new sustainable residence halls and even hire and promote professors. Here, students take part in governance - so we have a real voice. Of course there are other ways to give back such as working in the bike shop, helping plan spring's Kohoutek Music and Arts Festival or whipping up burritos at the student-run Shakedown Café.

Perhaps the best part of Pitzer is simply the freedom to be who you are. I'm continually fascinated and inspired by the myriad personalities who live and learn here. Pitzer teaches you that to achieve happiness and success, the best formula to follow is your own. If you are still reading this letter, at least some of this description has probably tickled your fancy. Now remember, you can't take advantage of all this great stuff unless you apply, so press "submit" for Cecil's sake!

Sincerely,

Michael Landsman
Pitzer College

Class of 2012

2010-11-24T14:17:00.000-08:00

Waiting for the Incredible Hulk
November 16, 2010
By Angel B. Pérez

From Inside Higher Ed: http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2010/11/16/perez

If K-12 education is waiting for Superman, then higher education in America must long for the Incredible Hulk. In the movie "Waiting for Superman," Davis Guggenheim highlights the problems that plague elementary and secondary education in this country, and illustrates how a system challenged with systemic injustice and bureaucratic red tape is obstructing students from attaining the American dream -- a shot at college.

But what happens when those students who make it arrive at the doorstep of the ivory tower and realize (like Geoffrey Canada, the educator in the movie whose childhood awakening inspired the documentary's title) superheroes don't exist? Higher education leaders paint images of colleges and universities in America that we don't live up to. Like the fictional characters we grow to admire in our infancy, postsecondary education can often disappoint.

Of the students who enter college in America, 43 percent don't graduate, and those who do typically don't complete in four years. Between 1971 and 2009, the gap in bachelor's degree attainment between white and Hispanic students grew from 14 to 25 percentage points. At public four-year colleges, less than half of the recipients of Pell Grants -- our lowest-income students -- graduated with a bachelor's degree. For African-American students, the proportion is even smaller.
We have a for-profit college sector that preys on low-income and first-generation students who are not savvy about the college application and financial aid process. These schools have produced the highest student loan default rate in the country and amongst the lowest graduation rates in the nation.

There are students who attend universities where they have little contact with actual professors because professors are so busy doing research. You can't blame the faculty, since promotion and prestige in academia is based on research and publication outcomes, not teaching and student engagement. Those who lose are our students, who experience education from a factory, instead of a second home where they are nurtured and cultivated.
In the world of elite colleges and universities, institutions compromise their values to compete for top ratings in U.S. News & World Report. They don’t always engage in student’s best interests; rather institutional policies are shaped to ensure climbing a few numbers on a report that earns a magazine millions of dollars and tells students and parents nothing about a college where they will thrive.

Most shocking of all are the unethical practices of college enrollment offices that disguise information in financial aid packages to enroll as many students as they can -- at the lowest price. Since our government does not require colleges and universities to provide certain basic information in a financial aid package, colleges sometimes provide the minimum amount, knowing that naïve students will enroll, even if they really can't afford it. We have a multibillion-dollar student loan industry and the highest rate of default in our history. Some would argue it's the consumer's fault, but colleges and universities that hide total cost of attendance and don't counsel students about the implications of borrowing are just as much to blame.

Higher education is an industry at risk. We focus on opening the doors for students, but we have not done a good job of making sure they persist. We are moving further away from our values, and if the pendulum does not swing drastically in the opposite direction, we will be the focus of the next documentary that shakes a nation and inspires a movement. We should not set our educational agenda around the egos of faculty and administrators, or the hopes of gaining prestige. We should do what's ultimately best for students. If a college education is the dream our young people reach for, it's up to those of us who lead it to create a system that embodies the strengths of the superhero they truly deserve.

Angel B. Pérez is director of admission at Pitzer College and a fellow at the Bowen Institution for Higher Education Policy at Claremont Graduate University.

2010-11-18T13:36:00.000-08:00

L.A. Local Travel: DONE!
What do food; Los Angels, community engagement and Pitzer have in common?
Keep reading and find out…

So I have bee on the road for the past two and a half months recruiting students from all parts of the Southeast, Northwest, and of course beautiful Southern California. This week I wrapped up my local Los Angeles high school visits. I enjoy having the opportunity to visit so many different high schools and meet so many interested and talented students from L.A. Aside from the recruiting, I always go out of my way to make a stop at Homegirl Café for breakfast or lunch while I am in the Los Angeles area.

At this point you may be asking, “So what does this Homegirl Café have to do with Pitzer?” Well, I am glad that you are so curious! Homegirl Café is a division of Homeboy Industries, which was established over two decades ago by Father Gregory Boyle in Los Angeles. It began as a jobs program in 1988, offering alternatives to gang violence in one of the toughest neighborhoods in the city, the program soon grew beyond the parish.

Mission Statement:
“Jobs not Jails: Homeboy Industries assists at-risk and formerly gang-involved youth to become positive and contributing members of society through job placement, training and education.”

For more information about Homeboy Industries, please visit their website and learn more about some of the many opportunities in which you can help:

http://www.homeboy-industries.org/

At Pitzer College, we have the Community Engagement Center (formerly the Center for California Cultural and Social Issues or CCCSI). Since its founding in 1963, Pitzer College has been committed to teaching students to be responsible citizens of communities both local and global by applying the study of liberal arts to concrete actions that benefit others. CEC works in the community creating partnerships, not to dispense "expert" solutions to pre-defined needs, but to identify and engage resources — both human and material — within the community. Under leadership and the guidance of the Steering Committee, the Center supports innovative community-based projects by offering research awards and fellowships. In turn, the Center's community partners present faculty and students with extraordinary opportunities to engage in applied problem-solving activities.

Community Based Education connects students and faculty with local organizations to create community-based research, service learning and experiential education opportunities that enhance the social, environmental, cultural and economic health of our communities. CEC serves a liaison between the academic institution and community partners, provides internship opportunities, and assistance with funding and programming, as well as providing logistical support to students, faculty, staff, and community partners.

If you would like to learn more about CEC please visit the website:

http://www.pitzer.edu/offices/cec/index.asp

2010-11-02T20:38:00.000-07:00

Día de los Muertos

First off, hope you all had a safe and FUN Halloween! The only time of the year (well for the most part) that you can dress up as someone/something else and nobody can say a word about it! Cecil sure had his share of fun this past weekend. He Helped out with candy at the Office of Admission (and by help I mean he consumed most of it).

With Halloween comes another celebrated holiday, Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead). Día de los Muertos is celebrated throughout Mexico and the Southwest states, and coincides with the Christian All Souls and All Saints Days. On November 1st & 2nd people remember those who are deceased. November 1st is considered the Dia de los Angelitos—the day to remember children that have died, November 2nd is the traditional Día de los Muertos (day of the dead). Pictures of the deceased are placed on Día de los Muertos altars with their favorite food and drink. Candles to light their way home, and soap and water to freshen-up after their long trip back are also often placed on altars. Trinkets they were fond of, symbols they would understand, and gifts are left to communicate to them that they are always in the hearts of those they left behind, and that they are still part of the family even though they are not physically with us any longer.

Every year the Latina/o Student Union at Pitzer College puts on an amazing benefit dinner and altar presentation, complete with music from the Claremont College Mariachi group, Mariachi Serrano de Claremont, along with traditional danza azteca (Aztec dancing). This year all proceeds from ticket sales will benefit an AB540 art student scholarship provided by Im: Arte, an art collective based in Los Angeles. Students attending the Fall 2010 Diversity Program will have the opportunity to join the Pitzer community for this much anticipated event!

For more information on Im: Arte visit their website at www.imarte.org

Oh and by the way... this week is the first Fall Preview Pitzer Day (along with the Diversity Program) this Friday November 5th and then again next Friday, November 12th. Check back soon for coverage of the preview days by our one and only exclusive reporter; Cecil T. Sagehen as he takes us behind the scenes of the day's activities.

2010-10-28T13:44:00.000-07:00

Warhol, Banksy, and the Street Art of Seattle

Since I have been on the road traveling the U.S. and meeting tons of interesting and talented students, I always seem to be hit with the same question, “I want to take art courses at Pitzer, but not necessarily major in art.” Is this possible? YES! As a Pitzer student, students are encouraged to take a variety of courses and get a feel for what they like and disregard the courses they may not enjoy as much. Pitzer is a great place for any students looking for a school with a strong appreciation for the arts or even just a creative outlet. As an alumnus and speaking from my own personal experience, art was a way for me to express my creative side whether on a canvas, through the lens of a camera, or in a printmaking studio.

While I was in Seattle this month, I had the chance to check out Capitol Hill, the downtown area, and of course the famous Pike street public market place. Because of my busy travel schedule, I rarely have the opportunity to venture around and take in all of the art worthy sites. But on this trip, I made sure to document some of the local urban/street art. If you are reading this and have had an interview with me, then you know that my office is a reflection of my love for pop art and street art (i.e. Warhol and Banksy). The Seattle area was covered in street art and other artistic forms of expression. Art was just put up on many of the walls and objects throughout the city… kind of like Pitzer’s open art policy. Have you heard of our open art policy? What?!?! NO you have not?!?! Well… allow me to take the time and do so now.

Here at Pitzer, we value student artistic expression and encourage a creative outlet on campus through the forms of murals and much more. Whether it be on a wall or pillar throughout campus. Students, staff, and faculty vote on the coming and going of art on campus. Below is a direct quote from the Campus Aesthetics Committee:

“The Campus Aesthetics Committee is looking for outdoor mural/art proposals. If you have an idea for a piece of art you would like to create, fill out the outdoor art proposal form, attach a drawing of your concept, and submit it to the Aesthetics Committee. The Committee meets regularly during the academic year and you will be invited to present your proposal at one of the meetings.”
Avery-Pitzer Past, Present and Future, restored
This mural, on the outside of Avery Hall since it was painted in 1996, is now part of the interior of the renovated Benson Auditorium in the Marilyn and Eugene Stein Atrium. It was expanded and restored by Paul Botello, the original artist, at the beginning of 2010.

If you would like additional information on the open art policy or the art major guidelines, please refer to the following links:
http://www.pitzer.edu/governance/committees/aesthetics/index.asp

http://www.pitzer.edu/academics/field_groups/art/index.asp

2010-10-24T19:15:00.000-07:00

Cecil goes to WHITE CASTLE & much more

Sooo... in another adventure of "Cecil vs. Food" this time around I took Cecil with me to share the experience of White Castle. Now many of you may be wondering why I seem so excited about this hamburger spot... well for starters, we don't have such a place on the West Coast. Now I am usually not a fan of red meat and try to stay away from it as much as possible (unless it's Taco Tuesday @The McConnell Dining Hall here at Pitzer), but come on... it's WHITE CASTLE! I had to experience this while I was in Nashville on my South East leg of the travel season.

After sharing my amazing snack with Cecil, we then had the chance to stroll through Hillsboro Village near Vanderbilt University. This was quite an adventure to hang out and check out all the eclectic shops, not to mention a stop by Ben & Jerry's as well (Cecil insisted).

This entire adventure was a way to pass time while waiting for my visit to the University School of Nashville. Thanks to current Pitzer student Michael Landsman, I was greeted by a full-house of interested and eager prospective students (thanks Michael).

Cecil with student from USN!

2010-10-03T11:03:00.000-07:00

"Cheaper than a wing and a leg."

Santiago Ybarra, Associate Director of Admission, is in Massachusetts this weekend and Cecil was out and about for the adventure. Here is what Santiago had to say about his time in Massachusetts:

"It turned out to be a beautiful weekend in Massachusetts, but on a rainy Friday night Cecil learned that parking costs a wing and a leg. Seriously, it's cheaper to register your car for the full year at Pitzer than it is to park in Boston (especially near Fenway when the Sox are playing). With this in mind Cecil decided to pretend it was summer and spent some time at the Cape." -Santiago

2010-09-29T10:35:00.001-07:00

The Music City pt. 1

The KING of Rock & Roll is going on tour with Cecil the Sagehen…Ok, so although we would all love it if Elvis would grace our lands again (haha sorry for the cheesy pun), the fact is he left a long lasting legacy in the music city of Memphis, Tennessee. This past week I hit the road again continuing the travel season, but this time my traveling adventures took Cecil and I to the rhythmical music cities of Memphis and Nashville, Tennessee.

I was especially excited about my trip to Tennessee. Way back when I was a senior at Pitzer (class of 2010), I wrote my Chicano/Latino Studies senior thesis on rockabilly music and culture. My thesis was titled: “From Past to Present: The Evolution of Latino/a Rockabilly Culture.” It was great to visit such a place as Memphis, where Elvis himself hails from, not to mention one of the original godfathers of rockabilly music!

Hey by the way… did you know that for the past three years, Pitzer College has been home of the Rockabilly Music Festival?!?! Students from the Latina/o Student Union and Pitzer College Professor of Politcal Studies & Chicano Studeis, Adrian Pantoja, have created an ever growing much anticipated tradition on campus. Every year, the festival draws over a thousand people from the Claremont Colleges and local communities in the Inland Empire, while featuring dozens of custom cars, a handful of student selected rockabilly bands, and vendors galore. The Rockabilly Festival happens every spring and this coming year students can expect to relive the music, art, and custom cars on Saturday, March 26th, 2011.

2010-09-28T15:01:00.000-07:00

Who said FALL was suppose to be this HOT!!!

So while the rest of us here on the counseling staff are dealing with tripple digit temperatures (113)... others are out on the East Coast enjoying the color changing leaves and rainy conditions that are typical of fall weather. Santiago just left for his traveling season this past weekend and took Cecil along for the adventure. Allow me to take the time to introduce Santiago. Santiago Ybarra is our new Asscociate Director of Admission and joined the Pitzer Office of Admission just a few months ago (actually a month after I joined the team).

Here is a message from Santiago:

" Cecil says hi from rainy New England. It was a very California 86 degrees when I landed in Hartford at 5:45pm, but two days later it started raining. The "desert chicken" known as Cecil wanted to stick his head in the ground but I managed to convince him to take a picture outside of Charlemont, MA. He's been to 5 schools and two states, and tomorrow he'll be hitting 4 more schools and 2 more states. He thinks the leaves are turning Pitzer Orange just for him!" - Santiago

2010-09-27T09:34:00.000-07:00

And here we… GO! Travel Season is upon us ALL!

Greetings friends of the Pitzer College Office of Admission! My name is Tim Campos and aside from being an alumnus… I am what some might call “the rookie” admission counselor. I have been working full time in the office these last few summer months and just recently hit the road to begin FALL TRAVEL…YAY! It has been quite some time since anyone has posted on the blog. Well let me first start off by saying that our previous admission counselor, Adam Rosenzweig, has left our office to purse greater adventures (we wish him the best of luck!).

But WOW! Time sure has passed. I think I have lost sense of what day it is and what time zone I am in at the moment. The travel season is off to a great start (minus my run in with food poisoning!). The admissions profession provides those of us on the road not only the opportunity to meet so many talented and excited prospective Pitzer students like yourselves, but the lifestyle also allows for us to embark on many unique travels all around the U.S. With that said I have made it a point to have my own “Man vs. Food” adventures while on the road and take Cecil along with me to some of the must-eat dining experiences. When I found out I would head Southeast to Atlanta, Georgia… I knew for a fact that I would be making a stop at The Varsity! This place serves over 200,000 hotdogs everyday and has been around for decades. I was excited for this and had to limit myself to only TWO chili cheese slaw dogs! Of course Cecil had to pick up a snazzy hat from the Varsity.

While in Atlanta I had the chance to meet up with another college admission counselor. It’s great to meet up with friends while on the road and explore the city together. We had a chance to take a tour at the World of Coke-a-Cola there in Downtown Atlanta. Can you believe that they have over 60 Coke-a-Cola products from around the world!!! Ok so I will admit that I did have my fair share of tasting of these products, which by the way… I enjoyed the various carbonated beverages from Latin America the most.

So that about wraps things up folks. Be sure to continue following my blog. Check back this week as I will be posting about my musical adventures in the Graceland… that’s right, Memphis and Nashville, Tennessee! And as always, be on the lookout for “Where in the World is Cecil the Sagehen”. AND of course… my next “Cecil vs. Food” posting

Cecil hanging out with students from The Galloway School in Atlanta, GA.

First admitted students on campus!

2010-04-13T09:11:00.000-07:00

Last Friday we hosted the first of two Admitted Student Days on campus. This is a hugely exciting event for us! After months of traveling, interviewing, reading, and deliberating we were excited to finally see some of the fruits of our labor. All admitted students were invited to visit campus either last Friday, or this coming Friday. Below, Megan Dooley '10 leads an attentive tour.It was a beautiful day in Claremont! Below, Associate Director of Financial Aid Yvonne Gutierrez-Sandoval speaks with an admitted family in front of our new Gold LEED Certified First Year residence halls.In the afternoon, Dining With Democracy (our student-coordinated lecture series) was hosting an event called Ayiti ("Haiti" in Creole) on the Mounds. The event included a panel discussion on various social and cultural perspectives on Haiti, a discussion of religion in Haiti, as well as some super fun drumming and dancing! Needless to say, it was a fantastic afternoon for admitted students to see what they have to look forward to. Many of us in the Admission Office reserve a moment during this exciting time of year to reflect on all of the applicants who we could not offer admission to. This was an incredibly competitive year at Pitzer, and many capable and qualified applicants were disappointed by the letter they received from us. Looking ahead, we sincerely hope that all students find a place that they are excited to call home for a few years, whether at Pitzer or elsewhere, and we remain thrilled with the students who will be joining us in the fall! Welcome aboard, class of 2014!

Spring is in the air...

2010-03-24T13:24:00.001-07:00

Danny Irving (class of '08, Admission Counselor) and Jackie Legazcue (class of 2010) couldn't be more excited about the beauty that spring brings to campus. I guess it's just a purple kind of day!

The "testing option" debate

2010-03-24T08:29:00.000-07:00

Our Director of Admission, Angel Perez, was quoted today in the Chronicle of Higher Education as part of a discussion on colleges that no longer require standardized test scores from their applicants. We're proud of our testing option and grateful to be included in this nation-wide discussion.

Applicants to Pitzer College have many choices to consider in lieu of standardized test scores. Students with a cumulative 3.5 unweighted and academic GPA (without Health and P.E., for example) as well as students in the top ten percent of their high school class (for schools that rank their own students) are completely exempt from submitting testing. Students who do not meet those requirements and still would like to forgo standardized tests may submit AP or IB test scores in English and Math, or simply submit a graded math test from Algebra II or a more advanced course, as well as a graded essay from their most current English course.

Our testing option is designed to give students as much freedom as possible to represent themselves academically. Some people love the tests, some people don't. We get it! We have found that a demonstrated commitment to hard work is a much more consistent indicator of academic success at Pitzer than high test scores.

Happy reading!

Pitzer in the news!

2010-03-22T10:55:00.000-07:00

I wanted to share some of the attention that Pitzer College has been receiving in the news recently.

The Los Angeles Times ran an article this weekend exploring some of the sustainability initiatives around campus. At Pitzer we really strive to live our values. The most gratifying aspect of our culture of sustainability is that it grows right out of our students. Many of the projects discussed in this article and many more that may be seen around campus are direct results of student effort. In an era when everything "green" is hotter than a mid-1990s Macarena, it's nice to be able to say that our attitude toward our environment is truly organic and home-grown!

Last week, Pitzer was featured in an article discussing another hot topic in higher education: gender-neutral housing. This article addresses some of the questions that have been raised as more colleges embrace this progressive attitude toward students' abilities to choose who they live with.

Last but certainly not least, Laura Skandera Trombley, President of Pitzer College, published her most recent scholarly study of Mark Twain this month. Mark Twain's Other Woman: The Hidden Story of his Final Years is now available on Amazon and in bookstores. As an internationally renowned Mark Twain scholar President Trombley balances her roles as both adminstrative leader and scholar with grace and candor. I was lucky enough in my first year at Pitzer to take a course on Victorian America which President Trombley "team-taught" with Stuart McConnell from the History and American Studies field groups. For those of you interested in President Trombley's work I encourage you to explore her personal website.

...and then it was March!

2010-03-04T23:13:00.000-08:00

Woosh! Was that the month of February I just saw go by my window? I hardly noticed! I must have spent the whole month hunched over my desk reading applications!

If you're a returning reader, welcome back! If this is your first glance at the blog, thanks for your interest in Pitzer! We're approaching the light at the end of a very long and rewarding tunnel. We're only a week or so away from finishing all of your applications! At this time, everyone's application has been read at least once by the Admission Counselor responsible for your territory and is now circulating to a "second reader." We use this system to ensure that the first person who sees your application has the best chance of being familiar with your high school (and may have even met you while we were traveling). Second readers give each application a fresh perspective and help us get a more holistic picture of our applicant pool. It's been an absolute honor and joy to see your essays, recommendation letters, interview notes, MyCollegeI videos, art supplements etc.

So what's next? Next week our whole team will come back together for an intense week-long summit that most schools simply call "committee." We basically lock ourselves in the conference room and discuss what we've read so that we can build a well-rounded class. Committee is fun, emotional, exhausting, and rewarding. It is also the most poignant reminder that we innevitably receive far more excellent applications than we have the possibility of offering admission to. More on committee in the weeks ahead.

I'll leave you with this fun piece of news. Our very own Angel Perez, Director of Admission, has been asked by the Washington Post to write about the college search and admission processes. His first article is a great checklist for any high school student who is pondering the college question.

That's it for now. See you soon!

First week of reading!

2010-01-29T13:56:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone. This was the first week that the counseling staff was able to take files home to read. The veterans in the office are shaking a bit of rust off their reading glasses, and cozying back up to their favorite home work-space. As the rookie in the office, I'm still getting used to this part of the job, but so far it's been a pleasure to read your applications!

After all the travel, the silliness, the promotion, the interviews, the tours, the school visits...this is the real "meat and potatoes" of our year. Each one of us takes this season very seriously. Students often articulate the most personal, sensitive, and formative subjects of their lives in college applications. Admission counselors are strangers to you. We are not your family members, your best friends, your mentors. We are not the people one might expect to be privy to the kind of emotional investment that many of you put into your applications. But here we are, reading about your personal triumphs, family tragedies, sports injuries, paradigm shifts, "a-hah!" moments, and bold aspirations. The day we forget how meaningful this exchange is, will be the day we quit our jobs.

I'll be writing more about reading season in the weeks ahead. I hope that the second half of your senior years are materializing in memorable, happy, and productive ways. Have fun!

January Interviews

2010-01-20T17:25:00.000-08:00

I hope everyone had a relaxing and meaningful Martin Luther King Jr. Weekend! The rest of the admission staff and I spent the weekend scattered across the country holding the last interviews of the year. We had counselors and/or Admission Fellows in San Francisco, Emeryville, Seattle, Washington D.C., and Chicago. (We'll be wrapping up in Portland this coming weekend). All added up, we did approximately 300 interviews in one weekend! Thanks as well to all of our prospective students who took time and energy to schedule an interview with us on the road. We love meeting you and hearing your stories!

We worked and traveled over a long weekend which, for most people is a holiday, because we really value the opportunity to interview as many of our applicants as we can.

Returning to the office today, we saw the parking lots and dining halls full of students who returned from winter break while we were away. The campus has energy and life again, despite the rain. Yes! Rain! Do not adjust your screen, you're reading correctly. It's been pouring, by our standards, for a couple of days now. Rain in the desert is often bewildering, and many of us are joking about the "awful weather." The truth is, however, that the rain is also a critical part of the ecosystem that we inhabit and so it's nice to see the plants and animals soaking up the much anticipated water.

While I was in Chicago for interviews I got to check in with some Pitzer College alumni!
From left: Caitlin Pierce '09 is a first-year corps member of Teach For America in Saint Louis, MO; Yael Berenson '08 lives in Chicago and works for Youth Outreach Services; Ben White '08 also lives in Chicago and works at Easter Seals Therapeutic Day School; I am me; and Kevin Garvey '08 just moved to Chicago after teaching English in South Korea for a year and a half.

What a great opportunity for some Pitzer propaganda! But really, it was fantastic to see the good work that Pitzer alumni are doing in the world. Keep it up!

For the next month or so, the admission staff will be reading the applications that you have all put so much time and energy into. It is a labor of love. Though it may seem strange, I encourage you to take this time to relax as much as you can. Not so much that you start failing classes, but enough so that you can enjoy the second half of your senior year. The process is now truly out of your hands. Read fun books, ride a bike, stay up late with your friends, write songs, eat meals with your family.

...and let us know if you have any questions!

Where's my application!?

2010-01-13T11:46:00.000-08:00

"I submitted my application online, but my teachers mailed in my recommendation letters themselves...do you have everything!?"

"Did you get my Art Supplement!?"

"I took the SAT and/or ACT more than once, do you have all the correct scores!?"

"I heard there was a glitch with the Common App...is my application OK!?"

"My messenger pigeon came back without my college application, does that mean you received it!?" [True story.]

If you have any of these questions, or others like them, then Cecil the Sagehen has something to tell you. Click here!

Also, for those of you who miss the "Beyond Buzzwords" days, check out this article in the Chronicle of Higher Education and then my Letter to the Editor in response. Let me know what you think!

Our turn

2010-01-07T11:48:00.001-08:00

Welcome back from a great break! The Office of Admission took a nice little vacation for the holidays and now we're back to work. Most of you have already submitted your Regular Decision applications. Congratulations! Some of you may have had some trouble submitting online if you waited until the last minute. For this reason, if you began your application before the deadline, YOU MAY STILL SUBMIT before midnight Pacific Standard Time on Sunday, January 10. If you have any questions about the Common App glitch, give us a call at the office.

We're really proud of all the hard work and energy that went into your applications.

Now it's our turn! For the next couple of weeks we'll just be opening mail, sorting, alphabetizing, and entering information into our computer database. Here's some footage from our "back office" this morning where some of our staff are working alongside some dedicated student workers to sort all of your information!

After Early Decision Committee

2009-12-16T10:29:00.001-08:00

Yesterday the Admission Committee met all day to discuss our fantastic Early Decision applicants. We had more Early Decision applications than ever this year and it was a pleasure and an honor to read each one. After 6 intense hours around a table, which included much discussion and analysis, our committee reached consensus in order to admit the first students to the class of 2014! For the rest of the week we'll be preparing and mailing our decision letters.

Some of you will be very happy to see a letter from Pitzer in the mail. Congratulations! Some of you will be disappointed. One of our policies as a committee is to make honest and fair decisions with our Early Decision applicants; we don't defer or wait-list many students from the Early Decision pool. If we can't make it happen for an applicant, then we want that person to fall in love with another school. We don't make these decisions lightly. Each one of us appreciates the time, energy, and emotion that you put into your application.

Our current students are finishing their finals this week, and the Office of Admission is calm today. The sun is shining in Claremont, and the air is mercifully clear. We've even got some snow clinging to the peak of Mt. Baldy just north of campus! In true Pitzer fashion, I decided to make an "Orange-person" this morning, rather than a "snow-person." The impressive results are pictured below.

For all of our Regular Decision applicants, I encourage you to finish and submit the applications by the January 1 deadline. Dramatically waiting for the clock to strike 11:59pm on New Year's eve to click submit on the Common App will undoubtedly appear to be a terrible decision when your power goes out...your internet glitches...or you forget that you're not in the Pacific Standard Time zone...or some other catastrophe befalls you, causing your laboriously constructed and manicured application to bounce back at you unceremoniously.

Get the picture? Those of you expecting to make a New Year's resolution to stop procrastinating should begin that process sooner rather than later.

Done and done!

Some Holiday Wackiness

2009-12-10T15:39:00.001-08:00

For college and high school students alike, final exams are imminent. No matter where you are in the country, your weather was awful this week. Most importantly, the January 1 Regular Decision application deadline is rapidly approaching! Feels like we need a break, doesn't it?!

We had some early fun here in the office in preparation for the coming holidays. Below are pictures from our Student-Staff holiday party!Above, members of the counseling staff raffle off iTunes gift certificates for lucky student-workers!
Our wacky student-workers! Looks deceptively fun! Arnaldo Rodriguez, Vice President for Admission and Financial Aid, tests out a beautiful piece of "Pitzer flavored" furniture (handmade by Admission Fellow Tim Campos '10!). Below, Cecil cozies up to a bready reindeer head! Yum!So breath deeply. Eat the eyebrows off a bready reindeer head, and relaxe as we head into winter craziness. Season's best from the Pitzer College Office of Admission!

Beyond Buzzwords, part 4

2009-12-03T13:48:00.000-08:00

At last, we come to the end of our journey through Pitzer's core values, and how applicants might better come to understand what we mean when we repeat them. So far we've discussed Social Responsibility, Intercultural Understanding, and Interdisciplinary Learning*. The final core value that is central to the Pitzer College experience is Student Autonomy.

*Briefly, though, I want to pass along this article for anyone who is interested in reading more about the debate (oh yes, there is a debate!) over interdisciplinarity and its future in higher education.

And now back to the task at hand...This idea of Student Autonomy was born, like our other values, from the experiences of the individuals who founded our college in the early 1960s. Student Autonomy has many meanings, and is manifested in several ways both philosophically as well as practically here at Pitzer.

Most liberal arts educations are based on a "core curriculum," which is a fancy way of essentially saying "general education requirements." These core curricula may comprise the first one, two, three or even four semesters of one's college education. The idea behind the core curriculum was to give all students the same basic introduction to college-level work by teaching the "foundations of a good liberal arts education," often without giving students any choice in their own course schedules.

Not at Pitzer.

Rather than force students to check courses off of a list of requirements, our letter of admission is a vote of confidence in our students that they are capable of imagining and navigating their own educations. We do provide some guidelines to ensure that students expose themselves to a breadth of subjects (32 Sociology courses, however fun, do not comprise a robust liberal arts education). For example, Pitzer students take at least two courses in the Humanities and Fine Arts, two in the Social Sciences, one in the Natural Sciences, and one in Formal Reasoning. Within those areas, however, the specific courses that students choose to take are up to them. Easy, right?!

You'll notice that I didn't say "Math." If you're anything like I was in high school, you are constantly asking yourself what does geometry...calculus...trigonometry have to do with what I am going to do in the world. The principle behind Student Autonomy is that everything we do here at Pitzer should be related to making the world a better place. Not everyone is going to use a graphing calculator to make the world a better place. Some of us will. The result is that we've hired some outstanding faculty to teach courses such as Math, Philosophy and the "Real World," The Mathematics of Gambling, Mathematics in Many Cultures, and more. If you want to do Dynamical Systems, Chaos, and Fractals, we've got you covered there, too! The point is, you have choices. By the way, Math, Philosophy and the "Real World" was one of the best courses I took in college.

Another manifestation of Student Autonomy on campus is the presense of student input at the highest levels of administration. It is not uncommon - at all - to find students in heate debates with each other, with faculty members, and with administrators over institutional decisions, policies, and current events. The fact that debate even exists between students and administrators is evidence that students have real agency in every aspect of the governance of the school. Students are required to sit on every governing committee at Pitzer including the Faculty Executive, Budget, Academic Standards, and Judicial. If you love Student Government, if you're passionate about the direction of your institution, and if you're courageous enough to engage in conversation then you will likely be encouraged by the autonomy you find at Pitzer.

So for prospective students, we want to see your leadership, your independence, your initiative. Are you the kind of person that does well with autonomy? Are you curious and excited about taking courses in whatever subjects you choose...even if it means turning a course you end up disliking into a learning and growth opportunity? If so, then show me! We want to see all of those moments when you've stepped out onto a limb by yourself. We want to hear about the hard choices that you've had to make. We want to know that you're excited to thrive in an autonomous environment.

I hope this exploration beyond the buzzwords has been helpful. As we head into Winter, keep coming back to Admission Unpeeled to follow your application through our office. Blog posts will be more frequent as we begin reading heaps of applications. We know that this is a stressful time. So if there's anything we can help you with, please don't hesitate to contact us here at the office.

Let the reading begin!

2009-11-30T14:44:00.000-08:00

Welcome back from a nice, long Thanksgiving weekend! I hope this message finds you all well-rested and ready to make the last push during this application season. Here in the Office of Admission we're about to begin reading Early Decision applications. The process for reading season goes something like this: After you submit your application, we "build your file." Literally, we're compiling all of the components of your application into a file folder that includes all your essays, letters of recommendation, transcripts, interview notes, supplemental materials, test scores etc. Once your file is built, we assign applications to the Admission team, and we start reading!

As part of our holistic approach to admission, each application is read at least twice. The "first reader" is likely the Admission official responsible for your geographic region. In many cases this person has visited your school in the past and may know your guidance/college counselor. This helps us to keep students "in context," by allowing us to review your application with more knowledge about where you're coming from. The "second reader" is simply another member of the Admission team. All of our reading decisions are confirmed in "committee," when the entire team gets together around a table to discuss the applicant pool as a whole. Early Decision notification letters will be mailed by December 22.

Once we're done with Early Decision, we repeat the same process with our Regular Decision applicants. It's a long reading season, folks! Please be patient with us while we build your files. Regarding the completeness of your application, no news is good news. If you do hear from us regarding a missing document in your application, don't panic. We know that sometimes things get lost. We appreciate your patience and cooperation if we have to ask you to re-submit a piece of your application. We also may not know if your application is complete immediately following the deadline. Check out these pictures below of what a small batch of mail looks like around here! We'll get some pictures of this year's mail coming in so you can follow your application through the office as we build your file.

So what are we looking for when we read these applications?

Good question! Taking a holistic approach to admission means that we want to know more about our applicants than traditional, quantitative analysis usually provides. Pitzer was one of the first colleges in the country to become "testing optional," no longer requiring standardized test scores from applicants. This decision reflects years of research as well as our own institutional experience that, quite simply, standardized test scores are not consistent predictors of student success at Pitzer College. Some students test well, others don't. For that reason, we welcome test scores from anyone who chooses to submit them, but we don't require them. Further, even for students who do choose to submit test scores, they will only comprise one portion of your overall application.

We want to see that students have challenged themselves academically in high school. If your high school offers dozens of Honors and AP courses, we're going to expect our applicants to have taken some. This is one of the reasons why we "read by region," so that we have a better chance of knowing the environment that you're coming from. Once students choose to challenge themselves, we want to know how they've faired. We don't necessarily expect a spotless transcript; but we do expect that students who have struggled academically can point to an "upward trend" of success. If you have a story to tell, tell it!

Beyond academic variables, we want to see that students are a good match for Pitzer College. Do your values resonate with ours, and vice versa? If yes, have you demonstrated so throughout high school? Have you articulated why you believe that you're a good fit with the Pitzer community at every stage your application? Have you shown a committed interest in Pitzer by researching our school, taking the time to interview in person or over the phone, or submitting a MyCollegei video-interview? These are just some of the things that we think about when making these difficult decisions.

But you have some decisions to make, too! How do you know if you're a good "match" for a particular school?

It's impossible to find the right college if you don't know yourself. I asked a couple of college counselors to describe some of the questions they ask of their students to assist in the college search process. Below is a list of questions that you might use to reflect on the kind of person and student that you are. The results of this self-reflection process might be surprising. I encourage you to be honest and creative. Scribble furious notes if you must! Your answers to these questions should produce an interesting composite of your interests and goals, against which you can compare the offerings of different schools.

Many thanks to Stuart Oremus (Director of College Counseling at the Wellington School in Columbus, OH), Moira McKinnon (Director of College Counseling at Berwick Academy in South Berwick, ME), and Maureen Ferrell (Director of College Counseling at The Summit Country Day School in Cincinnati, OH) for taking the time to share your valuable experience and insights.

Thinking about high school...

Which course or courses have you enjoyed the most? Why?
Which course or courses have you enjoyed the least? Why?
What do you choose to learn when you learn on your own? Consider interests pursued beyond class assignments: topics you choose to study for projects, independent reading, jobs or volunteer work, activity period choices, etc. What do your choices say about your interests and learning styles?
Have you worked up to your potential in high school? Is your transcript as it stands now an accurate reflection of your abilities and intellect? If not, why not? And if not, what is the best measure of your potential success in college?
How have you changed and grown throughout high school? What would you change about your high school years thus far? What do see as goals left to accomplish before graduation?

Thinking about your other interests...

What activities do you enjoy most outside the academic day?
How would describe your role in your community and school? What do you consider your most important contribution?
Has any summer experience, work, travel, study, etc. been of special significance to you? Have you lived in other places? How did these experiences effect you? Is traveling abroad a "must" for your college experience?

Thinking about your world...

What do your parents expect of you? Have they expressed any ambitions/goals/plans for you? Are they realistic? How have their expectations influenced your goals and standards for yourself?
What two or three issues in the world concern you the most? Are you actively involved in dealing with these issues?
What qualities do you admire most in the adults with whom you relate?

Thinking about college...

How do you want college to be different from high school?
How do you want it to be the same?
Are there things you never had the opportunity to do in high school that you're looking forward to doing in college (sports, writing for the newspaper, Greek life, art, etc)?

Questions to ask of colleges...

What are you most proud of about your school?
What is the best/your favorite part of your college?
How does your college embrace diversity?
What makes your college’s community unique?
What is the social life like at your school?
At the completion of a 4-year degree program at your school, what do you do to aid your graduating students?
What traditions do you have at your school?
Please describe the relationships between faculty and students.
What three/four adjectives best describe your institution?
What are the most well-known majors at your college?
What is you school's philosophy?
What is the main focus of your school's educational system? Is it predominantly undergraduate, graduate, or post-graduate?
Please describe the school spirit at your college. How is the school spirit manifested on campus?
What stands out/is distinctive to you about an admissions application when you are reading it?
What are the advantages of attending a private/independent high school before college?
What is your retention rate following freshman year?
At your college, do the majority of students live on campus? Do most students stay on campus on the weekends?
Is there a large city near your school and do many students take advantage of this while in college?
Who are some of your distinguished alumni?
What safety precautions are taken at your school?
In general, how would you describe the student body?
Please describe the relationships between students and their advisors.
What financial aid is available at your school? Is money given predominantly through grants, loans, or work study programs?

So in the days and weeks ahead, we hope that the enthusiasm, anxiety, and perspiration that you put into the college application process will yield a diversity of results. Not only in the form of thick and thin envelopes, but in terms of your own personal growth. Be honest with yourself. Be enthusiastic! Forget about brand names and rankings. You will always be pleasantly surprised if you remain open to the adventures that you haven't imagined yet. Let the reading begin!

Beyond Buzzwords, part 3

2009-11-16T16:31:00.000-08:00

Interdisciplinary Learning…I can almost see all of your eyes rolling at just the thought of these words together. This term represents perhaps the most overused buzzword in higher education today. For more than a century, the “modern” social science disciplines like Sociology, Economics, Psychology, and Anthropology have battled each other professionally and intellectually. In a very literal sense, college and university faculty argue with each other and with administrations to justify expanding their particular departments. More generally, debates continue about which discipline best prepares students to study and understand the world around them. In fact, traditional higher education in America is based on these debates.

Since the 1960s, however, a new way of looking at the world has begun to earn a place in the academy. Pitzer, founded in 1963, has always embraced the interdisciplinary approach to learning. Interdisciplinary learning is an acknowledgment that people are multi-faceted, that the world does not conform to traditional academic disciplines. As a result, we are looking for students and faculty who agree that the learning process is best served when we ask what traditional disciplines can do together, rather than how they differ.

One of the ways you can see this value manifested on campus is in the structure of our Field Groups. Most colleges and universities place their faculty within traditional departments. We’re not most colleges. At Pitzer, faculty members can choose to identify with different Field Groups, allowing for a freer exchange of intellectual perspectives. We have professors here at Pitzer who may have been “trained” in graduate school as Anthropologists or Neuroscientists, but they choose to teach courses in History or Psychology. Further, we don’t physically separate our faculty by subject area. You won’t find the “Sociology building” on campus, or the “English/World Literature” building either. You will find Economists sitting next to Psychologists and Poets sitting next to Mathematicians.

Andre Wakefield, Professor of History at Pitzer, teaches a course on the History of the Disciplines and is currently working on a new project that will consider the historical, intellectual, and practical issues surrounding academic disciplines in higher education.

Another example of Interdisciplinary Learning has been the rise of the “Studies” in higher education, and particularly at Pitzer. Several of our Field Groups and majors fall into inherently interdisciplinary categories such as Media Studies, Chicano/Latino Studies, Political Studies, and Organizational Studies (to name but a few). The idea behind these degree programs is to provide room for students to explore a subject from a variety of perspectives. For example, in Environmental Studies when we talk about water usage in the Southern California area, we are forced to acknowledge that we are really talking about a political issue, and a sociological issue, and an economic issue, and an historical issue, as well as a scientific issue.

Christine Zarker Primomo is currently a Senior at Pitzer College and an Admission Fellow here in our office, among other things. Her major - Science, Technology, and Society (STS) - is a great example of Interdisciplinary Learning. Christine says, “These classes span across multiple disciplines including but not limited to: history, philosophy, anthropology, politics and public policy, and sociology. After taking Governing India my first semester, I discovered my interest in global water issues. STS has allowed me to combine my love for science with my passion for improving the health of and access to water resources. One of the best parts about Pitzer, especially majoring in an interdisciplinary field, is that each semester, without consciously trying, my classes all come together. Learning takes on a new face when in addition to taking classes I love, I see that they are all somehow connected under a bigger idea, one not tied to a specific discipline but rather have a diversity of views and practices. Part of the excitement of the semester involves discovering new links between classes like Environmental Chemistry, Language and Society, the Politics of Water and Philosophy of Science.”

For prospective students, we’re interested to know how the idea of Interdisciplinary Learning helps you look at your world. What are the theoretical and methodological tools that you need to take on challenges in your community? What kinds of multi-dimensional issues pique your interest? If you could create your own major, what would it include?

If you are excited to answer these questions, then you have gone beyond the buzzword. I encourage you to think about how your education will challenge you to find questions and answers in curious places. Tell us how you see the world, its problems, its successes, and why you want to continue your explorations at Pitzer. Read faculty bios and course descriptions at the various institutions that you’re considering right now; if they’re not assigning readings from different fields, then they’re not interdisciplinary. If they’re not assigning men and women on their reading lists, then they’re not interdisciplinary. If they’re not assigning ethnically and racially diverse sources, then they’re not interdisciplinary. Put institutions of higher education to the test.

Thanks for coming back to Admission Unpeeled. There’s a lot more information coming in the days ahead so stay tuned and keep reading!

Pictures from Fall Preview Pitzer Days!

2009-11-16T16:17:00.001-08:00

Admission Fellows Joahna Ruffin, Suhail Sheikh, and Misa Kabashima join Admission Counselor Danny Irving by the pool in front of our Gold LEED certified First-Year residence halls. Not bad for November, eh?
Families arriving on a beautiful Southern California morning!
That's me in the purple, just gushing with enthusiasm to some prospective families!

Here are some of our dedicated student-workers laboring away to inflate biodegradable balloons early in the morning.
Emma and Chris, Office of Admission student-workers, welcoming prospective families to campus. Cecil, do you feel left out?

Turn, Turn, Turn

2009-11-09T16:05:00.001-08:00

As the seasons change, so do our jobs. With Fall rapidly giving way to Winter the admission staffs at colleges across the country are returning home from the road, unpacking their roll-aboard suitcases, and settling back into their offices on campus. Those of you who have been following along know that I have been living in Boston for about a year, since I graduated from Pitzer. Well, California, I'm back!

The month of November brings several important events to Pitzer College. Last week we brought more than 40 students from across the nation who come from underrepresented ethnic backgrounds to the Claremont Colleges to gain greater knowledge of Pitzer the Claremont Consortium as part of our Fall Diversity Program. Pitzer Diversity Interns Alyshia Silva, Jose Barriga, and Maricela Ledezma worked with Graduate Admission Fellow Fernando Calderon and Assistant Director of Admission Constance Perez to plan travel logistics, meals, residence hall hosts, a five-college scavenger hunt, and capped the program with attendance at SCAMFest (the Southern California A Capella Music Festival, hosted by the Claremont Colleges).

Alyshia Silva '12 reflected on the program after saying goodbye to our prospective students: “As tiresome as it most undoubtedly was, I cannot express the great pleasure it was to see all 43 students bond and fall into the place that I call home. Whether seeing them take their facebook photos together and asking for each other’s numbers, nothing can beat the pure satisfaction at seeing their faces when it came time to say goodbye to Pitzer and each other. Afterwards, via email, facebook, and phone calls, Constance received plenty of gushing from the Diversity Participants who swear to see us in little less than 8 months…”

The program coincided with the first of two Pitzer Preview Days this semester. Pitzer Preview Days are an opportunity for studentsto visit us and hear more about our community from students, staff, and faculty as well as to see the campus for yourself. Our last Preview Day of the semester is this coming Friday, November 16. If you would like to attend our next Preview Day, please call the Office of Admission at (909) 621-8129.

So what's up next, you might be wondering? This week we'll be reading and deliberating on our Spring Transfer applications. As soon as that's done, our Early Decision applications will be ready to read, followed by all of our Regular Decision candidates; and so the Winter reading cycle goes.

In a few days I'll be back with the next installment of Beyond Buzzwords (stay tuned to see which one we'll be tackling). Leave me a comment or send me an email if there's a topic that you'd like me to write about as well. I don't do it for my health...it's all for you!

Congratulations to Emily Kleeman of Chicago for identifying the great Buddy Guy as the singer in the video from last week's blog post. This is the last installment of Where in the World is Cecil the Sagehen (for a while, at least). As usual, if you can figure out where Cecil has traveled from the pictures below, we'll send you a prize. Email me at adam_rosenzweig@pitzer.edu with your answers.

Enjoy the turning of the seasons!

Beyond Buzzwords, part 2

2009-10-25T11:30:00.000-07:00

Hi, readers! For those of you who have been following along for a while, welcome back! If this is your first time reading Admission Unpeeled, welcome! We created this blog over a year ago to provide behind-the-scenes insights into the Pitzer College Office of Admission, and to discuss the admission process in general. Last week we began a four-part series designed to demystify and move beyond the “buzzwords” that we use to define Pitzer’s values. We started with Social Responsibility. This week we’ll be talking about Intercultural Understanding. But first, as usual, some numbers from my travels this week:

The Roo (my 1999 Subaru Outback) had the week off, since I spent the whole week in Chicago with a rental car (a Hyundai Elantra named “Ellie”). Ellie gets better mileage than the Roo, so the approximate number of gallons of unleaded fuel consumed: 22.
Number of BLT sandwiches I ate: 3.
Slices of “Chicago-style” pizza I ate: 0.
Days in a row that “Balloon Boy” beat out Health Care as the leading news story: 3.

The importance we place on Intercultural Understanding stems from a strong belief that our world, and the ways that we hope to make it better, require us to see things from perspectives that might not come naturally to us. Few people reading this blog will honestly disagree that this is a good thing. But what does it mean specifically? Are we talking about diversity? What kinds of diversity? What kinds of cultures are we referring to, and how does this idea play out in our admission process as well as at Pitzer on a daily basis?

For prospective students, this means two things: one, we’re looking for students who contribute in some way to the diversity of our community; and two, that students value the diversity around them. We want an intellectually diverse student body in which you can find friends interested in Neuroscience, Environmentalism, Literature, Art, etc. We want an ethnically diverse student body in which your relationships with your peers become genuine learning opportunities every day. We want a geographically diverse student body from which you can know a good place to get a home cooked meal anywhere in the world. We want a racially diverse student body that reflects the world we live in. Diversity comes in many forms and part of your job in the application is to explain how you contribute to, and value, our diverse community.

Significantly, we want this same diversity from the faculty who guide our education. Pitzer already has one of the most diverse faculties of any liberal arts college in the country, and the administration has made it clear that continuing to diversify our faculty is a real institutional priority.

Aside from who you (the prospective student) already are, we want to see that you crave a diverse environment. Maybe you grew up in the middle of Manhattan with a cacophony of languages and cultures all around you. Or maybe you’re from a small town where almost everyone around you knows your first, middle, and last name. Either way, we want to bring students to Pitzer who can articulate what they’re excited to contribute to the community, as well as their desire to learn from others in it.

The journey only begins once students arrive at Pitzer on move-in day! All of our academic programs require students to incorporate some cultural study that takes them outside of their own community. The major you select or create will need to include at least one course on a non-Western or non-American subject.

Moving beyond the classroom, more than 70% of Pitzer students study abroad before they graduate! Our students go abroad more than those from almost any other school for a number of reasons. First, we actively look for prospective students who are excited to take this opportunity. Second, we think of studying abroad as an integral part of a progressive liberal arts education, not an optional luxury. As a result, all of our Financial Aid packages apply to studying abroad. If students are admitted to Pitzer, then they can study abroad through Pitzer. Finally, our students are encouraged to study abroad by their faculty and peers because we know the value of a community that is enriched by other cultures. When at least three out of four people around a table have spent a significant chunk of time in a foreign country, it changes the kinds of conversations one can have. It will also change what you and your peers do after you leave Pitzer.

Since 2002, Pitzer has been awarded more Fulbright Fellowships than any other school in America per capita. After graduation you can find Pitzer alumni scattered across the globe, literally. Many choose to return to countries in which they studied, others join organizations that allow them to serve a totally new community, and still others simply seem to throw a dart at a map and take off to explore themselves and their world. As a community, we believe that the world would be a better place if more people shared this attitude!

I hope that this gives you a better idea of what we mean when we talk about Intercultural Understanding. If you have any questions or comments we would love to hear from you. Before you go though, take a minute to check out where Cecil the Sagehen has been this week! While everyone in the office is running around the country meeting students this season, we snap shots of Cecil in various locations. If you can figure out where Cecil has been in these pictures, then we’ll send you a prize. Honest! We’ve already had two winners: congratulations to Katie Kecso of West Des Moines, Iowa and Benjamin Levine of Providence, Rhode Island. Keep up the good work!

I went out one night in Chicago and Cecil was unable to join me (past Cecil’s bedtime). I was able to capture some video from the night before a security guard asked me not to film inside the club (sheesh!). If you can figure out who’s singing on stage, then you’ll not only get a prize from Pitzer, but a special nod of approval from me. And we all know how satisfying a nod of approval can be. Until next week, my friends!

Beyond Buzzwords, part 1

2009-10-14T11:59:00.000-07:00

Hello readers! I’m writing to you from Wallingford, Connecticut. I’m sitting at a place called Half Moon Coffee and Grille Café. This place serves up a perfect combination of hearty, Italian-inspired meals alongside genuine Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee; and if you know me at all, you know how happy I am!

Now that we are fully engulfed in the crisp autumn air of October, many more of you are beginning to get your first real looks at college applications. You’re reading brochures, navigating websites, talking to counselors, and imagining yourself in different schools around the country. Throughout your literal and figurative journey, you will “try different colleges on for size,” see how you look in their colors, listen to how the names of different schools sound in your voice, and increasingly notice places where the fit is too loose, too tight, or just right. You will hear and read about how schools define themselves, and you will wait to feel a resonation between their values and yours. I call the values by which schools define themselves, for this reason, buzzwords.

Pitzer’s buzzwords include Social Responsibility, Student Autonomy, Intercultural Understanding, and Intercultural Learning. They are alternatively known as our core values.

Over the next weeks I will write about each one of these values, providing real life examples, to help us get beyond buzzwords. Our goal is to clear the air of static and really get down to the way that these values play out in our day-to-day lives at Pitzer. Hopefully, you’ll find something that resonates with you!

But first, some quick numbers from this week’s travels:
•Miles on The Roo (see last week’s post if you’re not familiar with The Roo): 960.
•Approximate number of gallons of unleaded fuel consumed by The Roo: 48.
•Approximate number of gallons of coffee (good…and bad) consumed by me: 2.5.
•Number of live deer observed from the road: 2.
•Number of deceased deer observed from the road: 5.

But I digress…

This week I want to talk about Social Responsibility. When students ask me to talk about the “typical” Pitzer student, this is often the first thing I think of. Our definition of Social Responsibility is intentionally broad (think of it as inclusive rather than ambiguous). Quite simply, Social Responsibility at Pitzer is the shared agreement that knowledge has ethical implications. The opportunity to live and learn at Pitzer imbues us with a responsibility to help a larger community, and empowers us to do so.

Everyone at Pitzer has a fire burning inside them about something in the world. It may be environmental justice, education, national politics, international development, human rights, gender equality, sexual liberation, medicine… Not everyone is passionate about the same thing, but everyone is passionate about something. Learning about the issues that are meaningful to other students is an important part of the intellectual diversity that we love at Pitzer.

In the admission process we are looking for students who have already demonstrated their commitment to something outside of themselves: a community service placement, an independent project, responsibility within one’s own family, activism and leadership in a community organization, the list goes on indefinitely; our understanding of social responsibility is as diverse as our student body.

As a Pitzer student, one is expected to continue learning and working on behalf of a larger community. The Center for California Cultural and Social Issues (CCCSI) is one of the best places in Claremont to get connected to a local organization that is doing valuable community work. Funding, transportation, and guidance is always available for students to pursue a totally unique social engagement project. All Pitzer study abroad programs include a community service component. Pitzer students are required to complete at least one semester’s worth of a community commitment, which can be fulfilled by any of the opportunities listed above, or by working in one of several positions on campus to strengthen and support our immediate community.

It is no surprise that most Pitzer graduates go on to jobs, activities and careers after college that reflect the value of Social Responsibility. Many alumni can be found teaching, working, and volunteering around the country and abroad with an organization they discovered during their time at Pitzer. Others are working for socially oriented law firms, NGOs, or private companies. The ways that Pitzer students choose to make the world a better place, again, are as diverse as the students themselves.

So as you think about Pitzer, and think about yourself, we hope you find your values matching ours. We’re excited for you to teach us about social responsibility in your life! While you strut your stuff in front of the metaphorical mirror, enrobed in Pitzer orange, take a moment to see if you can spot where Cecil has been this week. You may notice a certain theme between this week's pictures and this article! Email me at adam_rosenzweig@pitzer.edu if you think you know where Cecil is in the pictures below, or if you have any questions about social responsibility, or any other part of the application. Thanks for reading, see you soon!Here's a hint for this video clip. The band you're seeing is called Rude Mechanical Orchestra, one of several social activist street bands to perform at this festival. Name the festival, and the city, and you'll get a prize!

On The Road

2009-10-04T19:20:00.000-07:00

Goodbye, September! Hello, October! Goodbye, summer; hello autumn. Goodbye flip-flops, hello flannels (except in Claremont, where we never say goodbye to flip-flops). This week found me moving farther away from Boston. In fact, I visited a school in Bethel, Maine that is about as far away from Pitzer as any of the admission staff will travel this year. I have to say, despite my California blood, that I am completely in love with New England! The leaves are fully in transition out here and the process is awesome. I drove through White Mountains National Park in New Hampshire and a number of times I almost pulled over and wandered up into the enticing hills. It looked like what an ant would see from inside a bowl of Fruity Pebbles. Amazing. Consequently, this week I want to talk about the lives that we live while we’re “on the road.”

First, for perspective, some numbers from this week:

Miles I drove in my 1999 Subaru Outback (affectionately known as Roo, or The Roo): 801.
Approximate number of gallons of regular unleaded fuel The Roo consumed: 40.
Approximate number of fluid ounces of coffee I consumed: 200.
Average number of hours slept each night: 6.

As you can see, I spend a lot of time in my car. I was thinking about why my colleagues and I do this. Why we wake up with the sun and drive for hours to visit students and schools in locations that are seemingly designed to befuddle our precious GPS devices. Why we say goodbye to friends and family in exchange for hotel rooms and toll booths. I decided to ask my colleagues what are their favorite and least favorite parts of travel season, as well as what music they’ve been listening to on the road.

Assistant Director of Admission, Constance Perez’s favorite part of traveling is meeting students, though she knows it’s cheesy, and going to Sadie’s (the restaurant, not the dance) in New Mexico. Her least favorite part is flying. This week Constance’s playlist includes Stevie Wonder, Prince, and the 500 Days of Summer soundtrack.

Admission Counselor Danny Irving’s favorite part of traveling is getting to start his day as late as ten o’clock in the morning sometimes. That happens on the “almost never” side of “sometimes,” but you can’t blame a man for dreaming. His least favorite is visiting five schools in a day and then having to catch a flight. He also hates white Tic-Tacs (he knows that hate is a strong word). Danny forgot his iPod at home this week, so he has been listening to the distant but familiar memory of his mother nagging him as a child to double check that he’s packed everything before he leaves the house.

Associate Director of Admission Justin Voss’ favorite part of traveling is meeting students, finding good food, and experiencing different weather. His least favorite part is being away from his family. Justin’s playlist this week includes Monsters of Folk and 7 Worlds Collide, as well as Ryan Bingham and the Dead Horses.

Director of Admission Angel Perez’s favorite part of traveling is seeing students in their own elements and environments. He also loves eating regional food! Angel’s least favorite part is airport delays. This week, Angel has been digging Camisa Negra by Juanes, a Colombian artist.

My least favorite part of traveling is the food. I refuse to eat another Hampton Inn breakfast sandwich. I simply refuse. I did, however, find an excellent cup of coffee at a café called The Met in North Conway, New Hampshire! Songs on heavy rotation in my car this week include “I Lost It,” by Lucinda Williams and “No Rest for the Weary,” by the Blue Scholars. I love finding beautiful places in nature, as well as experiencing new and often bizarre scenes of American life. Ultimately, like my colleagues, my favorite part of traveling is getting to meet students and talk about college. It’s the fundamental reason why we deal with late flights, long days, homesickness and headaches. We really believe that Pitzer is an amazing place and we love hitting the road to find the next class of amazing people who will make it their own!

Last but certainly not least, Cecil the Sagehen loves traveling! The proof will be here every week for the next couple of months. Below are some more candid shots of Cecil on the road. Email me at adam_rosenzweig@pitzer.edu if you think you know where Cecil’s been this week and we’ll send you a prize! Cecil’s favorite part of traveling is escaping from predators (which include just about everything) and collecting travel-size shampoo bottles from hotels. Cecil’s least favorite part of travel is all the flying (go figure). Cecil’s favorite band this week is Ryan Adams and the Cardinals (Cecil has a thing for redheads, but who doesn’t?).

Announcements! Announcements!

2009-09-25T14:59:00.000-07:00

This week we're excited to announce the return of our "Where in the World is Cecil the Sagehen" competition! You've been reading about some of the travel that we've been doing around the country, and some of you may have already seen a Pitzer representative in your hometown. When we travel, we take Cecil with us, and Cecil loves taking pictures! If you can identify where Cecil is in one of each weeks' pictures, then we'll send you a prize in the mail! Honest! You can email me your answers by clicking on my picture on the right side of the screen, or directly at adam_rosenzweig@pitzer.edu. Good luck with these pictures here, and keep an eye out for Cecil!

We are also very excited to announce that the application for our Fall Diversity Program is now available online! This program is designed specifically for students from underrepresented racial and cultural backgrounds from across the continental United States. Students selected for this program will have the opportunity to experience life at Pitzer College by staying in a residence hall, eating in the dining hall, and interacting with current students. If you are selected for the program, you will have your travel and expenses funded. There's a lot more information about the program on the Admission website, so check it out!

Coming up this week we'll be meeting students in Texas, Philadelphia, Greater Boston, Los Angeles, and elsewhere. Find out if a Pitzer representative is coming to your school sometime this Fall (your guidance/college counselor will know). If we can't meet you in person this season, then you can still schedule a phone interview with someone in the office. Now is the time to start thinking about these things because our schedule does fill up! We will also be holding alumni interviews in some major cities across the country during the month of January, so keep your eyes open for those opportunities by checking back here every week.

Enjoy the new season, keep up the hard work, and have fun!

Getting savvy

2009-09-22T16:31:00.000-07:00

This week the Office of Admission is quiet. Not because there’s no work to do, but because we’re on the road visiting you! Our counselors visited schools and met students in Atlanta, Tennessee, the San Francisco Bay Area, Dallas, Boston, and Southern California – and we’re just getting started! Meeting a representative from Pitzer at your high school is a great opportunity to learn more about Pitzer, ask specific questions about the school, as well as gain insights into the college search and application process in general. If you can’t meet with one of us in person, remember that we have phone interviews available, and someone is always in our office to answer your questions or find someone who can.
But what kinds of questions should you be asking? How do you make the most of your opportunity to speak directly with an admission counselor? How do you know that you’ve found the right group of schools to apply to? The questions go on.
No matter how far along you may be in your college search and application process, you have no doubt been exposed to the glut of information designed to “assist” you during these often stressful months. Whole libraries have been devoted to college admissions, selections, applications, interviews, essays, and rankings. Entire graduate-level programs exist to train the professionals that you’ll meet along your way (also, ostensibly, to assist you). Not to mention the vast sea of college-related articles and – ahem – blogs that are just a search away on the internet. Wikipedia even has an article on university and college admissions (containing, among other things, information on the process in more than thirty other countries). A USA Today article this week titled, “To friend or not to friend?” comments on the pitfalls of using Facebook and other social networking tools to enhance your relationship with a particular institution or counselor. In short, there’s a lot of information coming at you.
So with all this information about the transition to college, why are there still so many questions? How do you become what I call a savvy consumer of college knowledge?
One way, if you know that you’re going to talk to a college representative, is to prepare some questions in advance so that you can make the most of your time together. You might even have some general questions prepared that you can ask of every college that visits, and don’t be afraid to ask tough questions! We’re on the road looking for you, so feel confident seeking answers.
When you’re presented with promotional materials from a college (picture that stack of brochures you brought home from the college fair), pay attention to the “buzzwords” that colleges use to describe themselves, and then do your own investigation. If a college talks a lot about “interdisciplinary education,” go through their online course catalog and read some course descriptions. Do they seem interdisciplinary to you? When it comes to advertising, colleges are no different from private companies, so developing a critical eye will help you become a more savvy consumer of college knowledge.
Another thing you can do to get savvy is to read some of the literature that college admission counselors read. The National Association of College Admission Counselors (NACAC) is the professional organization of our business. At their website (NACACnet.org) you can become a student member and gain access to loads of insider information. Find out how college admission professionals talk to each other. Find out what issues are on the minds of the people reading your application. Sign up for the NACAC newsletter (Steps to College) under the “Publications and Resources) tab from the NACAC homepage.
The Pitzer College Admission staff is here to help you. You can find out which counselor is primarily responsible for your region on our website. Find us, contact us, ask us questions! Being proactive should be your goal during the college search and application process. It’s a marathon, not a sprint, and there is still plenty of time. Have fun meeting counselors and investigating colleges!

Welcome Class of 2014 and beyond

2009-09-10T08:26:00.000-07:00

Hello and welcome to Admission Unpeeled, a personal journey through a year in the life of the Pitzer College Office of Admission. By following and participating with this blog we hope you’ll learn more about the admission process in general, as well as get to know more about exactly what’s happening with our office each week. We’ll be updating the blog every week with news about visiting your high schools, meeting you and your counselors, reading applications, hosting programs on campus, and more. Check back with us as often as you like, comment on articles that pique your interest, write to us and tell us what you think. Pitzer Unpeeled is for you!

My name is Adam Rosenzweig and I will be your primary Peeler, if you will. You will also read messages from other members of the Admission staff throughout the year. I graduated from Pitzer in 2009 with a degree in History. During my time as a student I was actively involved all over the five Claremont Colleges (“5Cs”) with organizations like the Braineaters (Claremont’s highly competitive Ultimate Frisbee club team), Hillel (5C Jewish life), Pitzer Outdoor Adventure (our biggest and most epic club), and the Center for California Cultural and Social Issues (Pitzer’s community engagement institute). I was born in Santa Monica, California but I’ve lived in Cincinnati, the San Francisco Bay Area, and Boston. For the Office of Admission I travel throughout New England (Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and even Westchester County, New York) as well as Illinois, Ohio, and Michigan.
This week at Pitzer has been very exciting for everyone, including the Office of Admission! New and returning students have been settling into their classes, and reuniting with friends. We are in the process of interviewing, hiring, and training our student workers to assist the admission team this year. By the end of the month we will have well over thirty paid student workers in our office! Our counselors are busy calling high schools to schedule times for us to come visit, so tell your college/guidance counselor (when they look like they’ve got a moment!) that you’re excited to speak with a representative of Pitzer College. If we can’t make it to your high school, and you can’t visit us at Pitzer, then we can set up a time to talk and even interview over the phone.

Become a follower of Admission Unpeeled and check back often for updates on the Pitzer College admission process. We hope you’re looking forward to this year as much as we are!

Smog Blog

2009-08-24T08:29:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone, Justin here.

Danny is taking this blog entry off and was gracious enough to let me steal some space. I do take some time off my juggling career (note the Pitzer orange tie) to do some real work! I come bearing an answer to the question you might have had. As you know, Pitzer is located in beautiful Claremont, California, about 35 miles East of Los Angeles. When you think of Los Angeles you think of the entertainment industry, the beach, freeways, and yes, even smog.

Let’s do some a comparison, shall we? Here is Beijing China just right before the Olympics:

Can you even tell that there is a building in that photo? That is what smog can look like. This is a photo I took on Thursday, July 30th at 9:27am from Pitzer Hall toward the mountains.

Those are clouds in the background, it was a little overcast that morning. Here is what that afternoon (1:48pm) looks like from the same location.

I grew up in the Los Angeles area and when I was younger and in elementary school and a bit into high school (I graduated high school in 1997) we had what were called “Smog Days.” These were days where the smog was bad enough that we were not allowed to go outside. This was something that affected all of Southern California. Since I have been back in California (since 2001) I do not recall there being any “Smog Days.”

Keep in mind that California has some of the strictest emission standards in the entire country. You can take a look at these graphs and see the data for yourself.

http://www.aqmd.gov/smog/o3hist-trend.xls As you can see in the graph above, things are getting much better. One of the students working with us this summer, Witt, is from upstate New York. If you visited campus this summer, Witt may have been your tour guide.

When I asked him about smog, he said that he thought it was going to be bad here in the Los Angeles area. He followed that up by saying that he has not seen it here in Claremont. There are plenty of days when you can see downtown Los Angeles (35 miles away) from vantages in Claremont.

What does this all boil down to? Basically, don’t simply go by your preconceived notions. Do a little research. We are always happy to answer questions.

To find out more information about smog and other environmental issues in California, visit the California Environmental Protection Agency at http://www.calepa.ca.gov/ or their subsidiary, the Air Resources Board at http://www.arb.ca.gov/homepage.htm .

This is all another reason why Pitzer’s focus on sustainability is some important. It is our responsibility to be proactive in providing a clean environment. To learn more about what Pitzer is doing, visit http://www.pitzer.edu/sustainability/ .

Enjoy the rest of your summer and hope to see you while we are on the road in your town during the fall.

Happy Summer Everyone!

2009-07-30T09:14:00.000-07:00

Happy summer everyone!

I hope your summer is going as well as mine. It has been pretty busy here at Pitzer, a large number of students have been visiting us on campus, we are working on some new projects for next year and, of course, half of the office is taking their vacations. In fact Angel is in Thailand right now. I am very jealous, but I am actually just getting ready for a vacation of my own! I am going to be spending some time in San Diego, on the beach with my whole extended family and then I am actually going to be going on a college road trip of my own.

My younger cousin is about to enter her senior year of high school, so we are going to take off to look at a few schools around California. Right now our plan is to take the 2nd week of August to travel down the coast and check out 1 to 2 schools a day.

You can call me a college nerd, but I am really excited for this trip. It has been 6 years since I was at this point in my college search process and now that I know what goes in to making these visits happen at Pitzer, I am curious to see how other schools look.

While I am talking about college visits, I thought I would give you a few pointers on what to do during your college visit.

Go on a tour- I know sometimes you are worn out and just want to do a self guided tour, but the tour guided by a current Pitzer student will give you an important perspective that you would loose if you tour on your own.

Go to the information session- These are very easy to overlook during your visit and sometimes can be less exciting than the tour, but they are still very helpful. Look at the tour as the student side of campus and these informational sessions as the application side. Often times colleges will go through their core values or mission statement during the information session. This should give you a good idea of what the school is looking for in an applicant. At Pitzer we talk about our core values during our information session and those are going to show up again on our supplemental essay.

Have lunch on us- If you are thinking about spending 4 years at a school, you should know what the food situation will be like. Also, make a point to eat lunch with a student. I know you will be embarrassed when your family member plops down and starts grilling a student while they are eating, but this can give you a truly uncensored view of the school because that student probably isn’t connected to the Admission Office.

Talk to students-Whether it is in the dining hall or on the mounds make sure you talk to someone random and learn something new about the school.

Question everything- Now I know that I am an amazing Admission Counselor who addresses a ton of important points during my information sessions, but it is impossible for me to cover everything, that is why you need to ask questions. Whether it is to the Tour Guide or the Admission Staff make sure you ask at least a few questions on every campus. Yes, you should prepare these in advance and NO, your parents shouldn’t be asking all of them for you.

Know why you are asking a question- More important than just asking a question, is to know why you are asking the question. Whenever you ask a question, be prepared to answer “Why is that important/relevant to you?” Everyday parents and students ask me questions about endowments and statistical data that really do not play a factor in their college selection process. So make sure when you are asking questions that the answers will help your college search.

Take everything with a grain of salt-College visits are very subjective, so know that what you see during your 2 hours on campus might not be an accurate representation of what 4 years on that campus will be like. This works both ways, you could have a great visit to a school that is not a strong match for you or you could have a terrible visit to a school that is really a great match for you. Take your time to observe the campus, but still keep doing research after you leave.

Write everything down-My last piece of advice is to write down your impression of the school right after your visit. I know this sounds unnecessary, but come April when you go to make your final decision your memory probably won’t be as accurate as your notes.

I hope this introduction to a campus visit is helpful, and I may be making some additions to it once I get back from my campus tours. Best of luck on your school visits and if you happen to run into me on the road, I hope to get a chance to meet you. [This goes for any Admission folk as well. :) ]

WAC(AC)-TASTIC

2009-06-15T14:47:00.000-07:00

If anyone called our office last week, you probably heard that most of the staff was out of the office between Wed and Fri. This was because we were attending the annual WACAC conference. On top of putting on an amazing conference that gave me a great opportunity for professional development, WACAC is an important organization for you to know about. WACAC is an ACAC, Association of College Admission Counseling, and there are a number of different ACACs for each area of the country.

There is WACAC-the Western Association of College Admission Counseling.
There is NACAC-the National Association of College Admission Counseling.
There is RMACAC-the Rocky Mountain Association of College Admission Counseling.
There is OACAC-the Overseas Association of College Admission Counseling.
And so on.

These organizations are a collection of College Admission Counselors, High School College Counselors and Independent Counselors all working together to find the best way to serve you, the students. WACAC represents the states of California and Nevada and works on advocating for student’s rights, making sure colleges adhere to The Statement of Principles of Good Practice and conducts research.

This year the conference was at Chapman University and it was an amazing experience for me. I hate to admit it, but this was actually the first time I had visited Chapman’s campus and I must say they have a beautiful campus. I also must thank the entire Chapman Admission Staff, you did an excellent job setting up the conference and all the social events. Since this was my first WACAC, they set the bar pretty high for all the conferences I will attend in the future.

This year’s conference was great, it gave me a chance to meet some new people in the industry, catch up with my colleagues and attend some amazing sessions. My favorite sessions were “Seniors Save the Day”, “Moving Images in the College Admission Process” and “Ready Set Launch! Help Students Get Their Scholarship Search off the Ground”.

Now I hate to be biased, but the “Seniors Save the Day” session was one of my favorites because it was presented by Adam Sapp, Claremont McKenna College’s Associate Dean of Admission and our very own Jasmin Escobar, Pitzer College’s Associate Director of Admission. This session talked about how seniors work to help the Admission Offices at their respective schools. Here at Pitzer we have what we call the Admission Fellow Program. The Admission Fellows help us by conducting interviews, presenting information sessions, recalculating GPAs and staffing college fairs. These Admission Fellows really do “save the day” for our office, and I am not just saying this because I used to be one. This year the Admission Fellows conducted 489 interviews and during the fall, while the counselors were on the road visiting your high schools, the Admission Fellows and Alumni Interviewers conducted 80% of our interviews.

Now I know a number of parents out there are hesitant when they hear their son or daughter will be interviewing with a student. I want to take this time to reassure all of you parents that interviewing with an Admission Fellows carries the same weight as interviewing with an Admission Counselor. The Admission Fellows actually go through a rigorous 40 hour week of training and are more than qualified to conduct these interviews. In fact students tend to enjoy their interviews with our Admission Fellows more than they enjoy interviewing with one of the counselors. (With the exception of my interviews of course)

The next session that I really enjoyed was “Moving Images in the College Admission Process” and it was also amazing. This session was presented by David May, Chapman’s Assistant Director of Admission and one of his student workers, Sasha de Mello. This session was amazing for me since I am in the process of creating a virtual campus tour for Pitzer and we have never done something like this before. It was great to see how another college approached this project and how they use other online resources such as blogs. You can find David’s College Admission blog at http://chappenings.blogspot.com/. After David and Sasha’s session I am even more excited to get started on our virtual tour and hope I can impress David with our finished product.

The last of my favorite sessions was “Ready Set Launch! Help Students Get Their Scholarship Search off the Ground”. This session was presented by Lynette Matthews, the Director of College Connection and Rhondalynne McClintock, the Director of Scholarship Club. Rhonadalynne’s daughter Talia, who will be starting her career at Pitzer in the fall, also contributed to the presentation. This session was a little bit different from the others I attended, since I don’t get to contribute as much in student’s scholarship search. However, this session was surprisingly relevant for me. Private School education is not cheap and even with our policy to guarantee to meet 100% of a student’s demonstrated need, sometimes families still need a little more help paying for school. There is a ton of money out there to help students pay for college, but it is up to you to find it (and the you I am referring to is the students, not you parents). In the past I have directed families to the 2 scholarship search engines that I knew of, the College Board’s Scholarship Search Engine http://apps.collegeboard.com/cbsearch_ss/welcome.jsp, and FastWeb http://www.fastweb.com/. In reality there are a ton of other websites that are great for starting a scholarship search (see below for a longer list).

The key to starting your scholarship search, is to make a list of your attributes, this is also called a personal inventory and think outside of the box when making this list. There are scholarships out there for things as random as people with one blue eye one brown eye. Look at things like your parents employer, your parents previous employers, if anyone in your family has served in the military, what you are interested in studying, if you do community service etc. At this point start looking through the scholarship searches to see what you can find. Some of the other great search engines I learned about in this session were http://www.scholarshipexperts.com/, http://www.meritaid.com/, http://www.finaid.com/, http://www.gradefund.com/, http://www.scholarshipcoach.com/ and of course Rondalynne and Talia’s website http://www.thescholarshipclub.com/. Talia and Rondalynne are located in Rancho Cucamonga, so if you are a student from the Inland Empire I highly recommend checking them out. Remember it is never too early to start looking for money for college and the process doesn’t stop after you start your first year of college.

There was one other big issue that we discussed frequently during the WACAC conference, the Cal Grant. For those of you who don’t know, the Cal Grant is free money for students who are California natives, who are attending a College in California who, demonstrate financial need and meet certain GPA requirements. The Cal Grant award can be up to $9,700 a year and is sometimes the extra money a student needs to be able to attend a college or university. Unfortunately, with our current economic crisis, the Governor is proposing to cut the Cal Grant. This cut would affect over 200,000 students, but there is something you can do to help. Write a letter to your local California Legislator and ask them to vote against cutting the Cal Grant. You can also write directly to Governor Schwarzenegger and tell him how you feel. This takes only a few minutes and can really make a difference. You can also log onto the NACAC website and fill out a short form that will send the email for you, http://capwiz.com/nacac/issues/alert/?alertid=13464096
Please every email or letter makes a difference.

As you can see, I learned a lot while I was at WACAC and came away rejuvenated and ready for next years travel season. Now on to some blog business, as you have seen there has been a little less posting on the blog over the summer, and since I will be out of town it will continue to be a little lighter in terms of posting. Later this week I am heading down to San Diego to help conduct mock interviews at my Alma Mater Francis Parker, and then I am heading out on vacation, so expect some posts about that. Don’t despair the light posting, keep tuning in and be ready for the fall because there will be some exciting new changes to the blog.

Let's Play Ball

2009-05-19T08:52:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone! Things are now officially quiet in the office, but as the office slows down, life around campus speeds up. Last week students were finishing up finals, others were moving out and graduation was on Saturday.

Last week, with graduation is right around the corner, there were a ton of events going on for the senior class ranging from graduation rehearsals to parties at a Professor’s house and a reception at the President’s house. Wednesday, however, was one of Pitzer’s best traditions. The Faculty and Staff vs seniors softball game. Yet again the faculty and staff won!!! In fact we have won every single year, this may be because we have the math department on our side creatively keeping score, but I think it is just because we are that good.

As always, the softball game was a lot of fun. Everyone from the maintenance staff to the President came out. Unfortunately Angel and Arnaldo were busy, but don’t worry, I represented for the Admission Office.

I think my favorite part of the game was Jim Marchant’s (our Dean of Students) new haircut.

This year he made a bet with the senior class. The bet ran, if the senior class got 100% participation with the senior class gift Jim would get a Mohawk for graduation. As you can see, the seniors succeeded in getting 100% participation in the gift campaign.

Here is another picture of Jim looking tough as nails (I think we also win the competition for having the coolest Dean of Students)

The senior class gift is the first chance for graduating seniors to give back to the Pitzer community.

Just so the seniors don’t get all of the attention the faculty and staff campaign was also a huge success. This your 90% of our faculty and staff gave back to Pitzer. This puts us at number one in the country for faculty and staff giving.

Back to the softball game, it was obvious that we were going win because, as Justin said, we had a ringer, Laura Skandera Trombley Pitzer’s President.

Can’t you see the fear in the students’ faces as she steps to the plate?

Here is a picture of Chris Brunell, our Director of Residence Life, right before he crushes a ground rule double.

And just to prove that I was out there, here is me waaaayyy out in leftfield

I would like to say that I was responsible for catching many pop flies, but in reality the ball came absolutely no where near me.

But hey, I did get my base hit! And let me tell you running on grass in dress shoes is not easy.

All in all it is an amazing tradition and Adam, one of our Admission Fellows who graduated in January even came back to play.

As you can see he has been missing the southern California sun.

Before I leave you to start preparing for graduation, I have a quick note for any juniors out there. The Claremont Colleges Receptions (or CCRs) are about to begin again. These receptions are a great way to get an introduction to the Claremont Colleges and gives you the change to speak with representitives from CMC, Harvey Mudd, Scripps and of course Pitzer. Here is the schedule of where we will be in the next few weeks.

Washington, DC- Sunday, May 17 at 2:00 p.m.
Philadelphia, PA- Monday, May 18 at 7:00 p.m.
New York, NY- Tuesday, May 19 at 7:00 p.m.
Boston, MA- Wednesday, May 20 at 7:00 p.m.
Honolulu, HI- Sunday, May 31 at 1:00 p.m.

If you are interested in attending please register on our shared website
http://claremontmckenna.gotoextinguisher.com/survey/index.php?time=2009-05-18%2019:00:00&id=158&timeID=592

Tune in for graduation pictures as soon as I get them.

May 1

2009-05-04T09:10:00.000-07:00

So last Friday was May 1. You know what that means, it was decision day!!!!

For all of you high school seniors, this marks our joint trip through the admissions process (remember this is my first time seeing it all the way through from the other side of the desk). Once you get that card in the mail, which hopefully you have already done, take a moment take a big breath and give yourselves a pat on the back. You deserve it!

Even though my first cycle is coming to a close it has still been a busy time of the year for me. We just had our two Admitted Student Days, which went very smoothly. Here are some pictures

Peter Nardi our acting President giving the welcoming speech.

And here are all the students with their parents.
Take a look at Sol leading an awesome tour
And we can’t forget two of our blog winners showed up. Jacey came to say hello and offered to give me capoeira lessons next year (don’t forget Jacey, I may take you up on that offer) and Jon Rice also came. He even had the foresight to bring his Cecil with him.

Aren’t they are great team!

The next week’s Admitted Student Day also coincided with our Spring Diversity Program. This means I spent the whole week running around making sure everything was ready, but the lack of sleep was worth it and we had an AMAZING time!

On Friday we went to the beach and it was a blast. Check out the pictures from our trip.

Here is my van on the way to the beach. It is a little blurry, but still the best van group EVER (P.S. Don’t worry I didn’t take the picture while driving, Tim took it)

Here we are at the beach

We also hired 2 new interns for the program, Bryce Coefield and Maricela Ledezma. I don’t have a picture of Maricela with me, but here is a picture of Bryce

After the Diversity Program there was no rest for Danny. On Tuesday I hopped onto a plane to New Jersey for Spring College fairs. They were a lot of fun! I haven’t been to NJ before so it was a brand new experience for me. Although I must admit I was less than thrilled with driving in NJ, I don’t like roundabouts L.

Overall the fairs were fun. I say overall because my GPS decided to take me the longest roundabout method possible to get me from school to school. I would have to say one of the high points of my fair trips was getting to see Watu Poe one of our admitted students when I visited the Peddie School. I even was able to coerce him into taking a picture with Cecil.

After NJ I finally got some downtime and went to visit some friends in New York. This was great because I have only been to NY on one other occasion, and I was sick 2 out of 3 days. This time was much better. I refrained from doing any touristy activity and instead spent time with my friends in Central Park and went to the Tribeca Film festival. Overall I had a great time, but am ready to stay in my own time zone for a while.

Well it is time to get back to reading transfer files, but I wish you all luck with the last few weeks of school before summer.

Angel is Awesome

2009-04-03T14:20:00.000-07:00

Despite being sick, Angel wrote another amazing article this week and it was published in LA Times. This article discusses what it is like for us to fight for you in committee and after finishing my first year it is 100% accurate. I hope you enjoy.

College admissions' wrenching ins and outs
For school officials, deciding on students' dreams is a difficult, emotional task.
By Angel B. Pérez April 3, 2009
I've been talking to a lot of angry people this week. They yell; I listen patiently. They cry; I empathize. The pain of not getting into the college of your dreams is unlike any other. Students call here to Pitzer College to find out what they could have done differently. Parents call to ask us to reconsider. It's hard to justify to someone who has just been "denied" the college of their dreams that although they've done everything right, we just did not have enough seats in the class.

What these families don't see is the amount of emotion that admissions officers across the country pour into making these decisions. These students don't know that behind closed doors, we argue about these difficult decisions. Each of us fights for the kids in admissions committee meetings, and we're truly sad when we turn away applicants who we know have worked hard but, because of circumstances beyond our immediate control, we cannot admit.

It's still hard for me to erase the images of the downcast expressions on my staff members' faces when the decisions go against the students they had argued for in committee. Just days ago, we were deliberating between a few candidates for a special scholarship opportunity -- knowing we had room for only one more. You could feel the tension in the room. Every admissions officer wanted his or her kid to get in. When the tough call was made, there was profound sadness. We knew we would positively affect the lives of some students while turning away the majority of those who had applied.

No matter how many years you work in college admissions, it never gets any easier to say no. At my institution, we received 4,079 applications but only have 245 spots in the freshman class. Choosing among a majority of overqualified students is our challenge.

I recall the fate of one young woman whose academic profile was top-notch. She had a 4.0 grade-point average at a competitive high school in Los Angeles, she listed a fair amount of extracurricular activities, and her essays read well. But she was from a town very close by and had never taken the time to visit the college. We offer many opportunities to do so, but she had had no contact with us.

In a year in which predicting how many students will enroll is going to be more difficult than ever, were we going to take a chance on her, that she was serious in wanting to come to Pitzer? With the pressure of having too many applications and not being sure of who really will enroll, we have to find ways to turn down students. In the end, we passed on her.

I also recall the young man from New York City who was academically below our margin. If I had read his application without meeting him, I probably would have denied him admission. But he showed up for my school visit when I was in New York, and had several contacts with me throughout the year. Then I interviewed him, and in my evaluation I wrote, "This kid bleeds Pitzer College." He was concerned about issues of social justice and social responsibility -- two key values that our institution was founded on. Clearly this kid had done his research and was determined to help me realize that he was the right fit.

His application eventually arrived on my desk, and I knew he was not going to be an easy admit. With a GPA below our typical average of 3.9 and no test scores submitted (we are a test-optional institution), the committee was not going to be kind. Therefore, I decided to read parts of his essay out loud to the committee. I needed to make sure they saw him outside the context of his numbers. They laughed out loud in response to this young man's humor, and they could not believe how much time he took to demonstrate to us how right he was for Pitzer.

I followed up the reading by telling them about my impressions from the interview: "He won't graduate top of his class, but he is going to be a powerful presence here." One of our staff members, who was clearly impressed, said, "This kid really does want to change the world, doesn't he?"

In the end, personal contact made a difference, and the young man's ability to paint a clear picture as to why he was the perfect match for our institutional culture won us over.

This week, students across the country received admission decision letters from thousands of colleges. They have poured their hearts and souls into their applications. They have worked hard and taken risks to share some of the most intimate details of their lives. They have told us about their goals, aspirations, triumphs, failures and adversities.

As I sat in my apartment, at the local Starbucks, in my office, (admittedly sometimes at the strangest hours of the night), I read their applications. With a constant cup of coffee in hand, I pored over each of their life stories. I laughed, I cried, and sometimes I performed a cheer of triumph (earning me some strange looks at Starbucks).

Regardless of my reaction to individual applications, I am truly inspired by young people today. They are much more motivated and qualified for college than I was when I was applying. Each day, I read stories of young people who are working hard to change the world and create new experiences that require them to take risks, have courage and overcome obstacles. We can't admit all the students we love, and that's because we tend to love many more than there will ever be room for.

To all these students, I say that where you get into college is not a representation of your worth, and please remind your parents that your college acceptance letter is not their final grade on the parental report card of life. If a school did not admit you, it's not a personal rejection.

In fact, most kids we turn away have done absolutely everything right, but given the seats we have available and the conflicting institutional needs that we have to balance, many kids are turned away because of the needs of the college, not because of a lack of achievement on their part.

We want an even representation of women and men, in-state, out-of-state and international students. We try to create a strong balance of socioeconomic and ethnic diversity as well. We need to make sure some kids can staff our athletic teams while others man our orchestras and theater productions. The list of needs is endless and seems to grow longer every year.

So for all of you getting the thick envelopes, the thin envelopes and everything in between this week, thank you for sharing the details of your lives and your aspirations. It's what keeps admissions officers in this business -- knowing that young people are doing amazing things and creating transformative experiences that will affect our world tomorrow.

Regardless of the decision letters you received, you have worked hard and have earned the right to brag about your accomplishments. You are indeed the hope we have been looking for.

Angel B. Pérez is the director of admission at Pitzer College in Claremont.

Secret time

2009-04-01T16:19:00.000-07:00

Unfortunately Angel is sick today, but that means I finally have the opportunity to expose all of the classified secrets that I have been forced, at the threat of torture, to keep from you. These tidbits of knowledge are so secret that through exposing them I may lose my job, but that is the price of the truth!

First I will expose the secrets of committee. Many people think that with how competitive the admission process has become a lottery process would be the fairest way to determine admission status. I just want to let you know that at Pitzer we DO NOT use monkeys and a dart board to determine admissions….we use chickens. That’s right, we don’t even bother to read your applications. Instead we spread them out over the floor and release a group of chickens into the room. Whichever application a chicken lays an egg on is considered an admit. Obviously chickens can only lay so many eggs a day, which is why it takes us 2-3 months to make our “decisions”.

A well hidden secret about the origin of the college, the original plan for Pitzer was to be a theme park for the other 4 colleges. We were still going to keep our orange theme, so there were going to be the Citrus Breezer, an Orange Peel Slid from where Mead is and the Pitzer Pinwheel where the Admission Office is located. Cecil was set to be the equivalent of Mickey Mouse ©, but unfortunately, due to copy-right infringement we were forced to become a college instead.
Now for the nasty truth about our tour guides. So I don’t know how many of you saw “College Road Trip”, but they actually took the idea of hiring actors to make campus look nice from us. All of our tour guides are actually professional actors and not Pitzer students. If you look closely you will notice that Ben actually was an extra in “Superbad” and Pamela was a cheerleader in “Mean Girls” and “Bring it On Again”.

Sometimes they are so good that we hire them as full time counselors. Constance was actually the star of “Dangerous Minds” and has been living a lie for the past 5 years.

The only reason I have been allowed to expose these secrets is to soften the bad news. Due to the current economic crisis, Pitzer will no longer be open to students. We are becoming a full research institution/Ultimate Frisbee team. In fact all of our current students are being forced into non-paid research spots, that is those who don’t make the ultimate Frisbee team.

So I am sorry to have gotten all of your hopes up, best of luck with next year and happy April Fool’s Day !☺

(Nothing in the above post is serious. So you don’t need to call to see if we still exist as an educational institution.)

Stop biting those nails!

2009-03-26T17:04:00.001-07:00

Your wait has come to an end. After 3 months of reading, filing and processing paperwork, we have made our decisions!!! At 2:14 PM PST March 26 we mailed our letters.

Regardless of the decision you will be receiving in the next few days, you should be proud of yourselves! Since we are so small we are only able to admit 822 applicants and since we had 4079 applicants these were very difficult decisions. This puts us at a 20% accept rate and believe me we wanted to admit more than 20% of you.

Before you get too wrapped up in the emotional roller coaster the maelstrom of admission letters causes, make sure to thank the people that made this possible. First thank your high school counselor. Whether or not you got into your first choice school, your counselors work pretty darn hard to get you accepted. They work late nights, over their December holiday vacation and send our more copies of your transcript than you could even imagine! So no matter what news you get put on a smile, go to your counselor, give them a big hug and thank them for all their hard work.

Next go to all those teachers that wrote those letters of recommendation. They are often the most neglected in this cycle. They want to share in your joy as well. So tell them where you were accepted and where you were denied and let them share in this emotional time. And don’t forget to give them a big thank you.

The one that many other people forget is your parents. I know most of you are rolling your eyes about that comment, but whether your parents were not involved in the process, were helicopter parents or gave you just the right amount of help, you must remember you wouldn’t be the person you are today if it wasn’t for them. So put the months of bickering aside and thank them for the help they gave you with your application. Don’t forget, the day when they will be dropping you off at your new dorm room is right around the corner, and they will be the ones heading back to an empty nest.

So to everyone who reads this blog, I send you my congratulations or my sympathy and hope you can mange to wait another few more days for that envelope (So please please PLEASE don’t call us yet.)

That aside, here are some pictures of our process.

Here is all of us in committee

Here is Angel in committee

And signing all those letters

Here is Jasmin and Constance stuffing envelopes

The trays of letters (believe me this is only a fractions)

Here is what the outside of the acceptance envelopes looks like. Cecil is happy to get his.

This is what the inside looks like

Here is Alex looking happy, as always while stuffing those envelopes.

We have a tradition here at Pitzer. Every year Arnaldo and Angel loads his car up with acceptance letters and takes it to the post office. Here is Arnaldo on his way to load up his car.

Ahhh all the letters lined up.

Angel and Arnaldo loading up the car.

And now your favorite counselor modeling with the acceptance letters.

Wow what a packed car.

And off they go!

Angel at the Claremont Post Office loading dock.

So long, farewell auf wiedersehen goodbye...acceptance letter.

By the way, we have started the Official Class of 2013 facebook page. So once you get your acceptance letters come check us out on facebook, ask any questions you might have, and get to know the other students who were accepted to the Pitzer class of 2013.

AND CONGRATULATIONS!

Committee

2009-03-19T09:46:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone.

So we are in committee now. Another completely new experience for me. During committee we discuss all of the files and create the best class possible. We are still only starting so I will post some pictures and more details next week, but to tide you over until then, here is another post from one of our fabulous Admission Fellows.

Hey readers,

I’ve never written a blog before so I hope I don’t fail you. There’s really a lot going on with me these days as I close out my last semester of college. Mostly what’s on my plate the next few weeks is my thesis and finding something do after graduation.
Just to give you all a little background on myself I’m Tori! I’m a Neuroscience major and a Spanish minor here at Pitzer. While I finished my minor a while ago I still have quite a bit of work left on my major.
As a Neuroscience major I’m required to complete a 2-semester experimental thesis project of my own design. I spent last semester doing background research and designing my experiment and this week I’ll finally start it! I’ll be studying the effects of increased serotonin through dietary means. You guys might have heard about Serotonin in reference to depression, but it does a lot of other things in your body as well. Serotonin is really considered the universal neurotransmitter because it’s involved in so many processes from appetite and weight control to regulating body temperature and how much pain you feel. Also, of course, it affects your mood and emotional state.
Basically what I’ll be doing over the next 2 weeks is administering tryptophan dietarily, which is a protein you normally get from some foods. You might have heard that it’s in turkey. This protein, and only this protein, becomes serotonin in your brain. I’ll be watching for various effects of this treatment and trying to help determine if tryptophan could be a viable treatment option for various conditions such as depression or acute pain.
My study should end just in time for Spring Break so wish me luck! Hopefully there are no snags that would prevent me from having to stay here over break but they don’t call it experimental for nothing.
After the study ends I will write up my results into the paper that will be my actual thesis and I’ll also create a poster for presenting my findings. When I say a poster I don’t mean I’m gluing things to a piece of poster board, it’s a professionally-printed 5 foot by 3 foot display and no easy task to create.
Even though thesis is the biggest item on my plate right now I still have other classes that I’m taking and have to keep up with, like I have a midterm in Cell Bio tomorrow that I’m not very excited about. I’m also taking a class on Meditation & Xi-Quong, which is a slow martial art. I thought it would be nice to take a class that was designed to relieve stress! My last class, but not least, is Neuropsychology which I love. The professor is hilarious and we get to learn about the effects of head trauma and things like that.
Despite all the work I really do love school and will be very sad to leave it. After spending four years here I’ve come to know a great deal of people that I don’t want to leave behind, but at the same time I feel like I’m ready for a transition, something new. It’s very bittersweet really. I imagine you all are feeling something like that.
Well enjoy your last semester of high school and be sure to make the most of college when you get there. And keep reading! Who knows, maybe I’ll post my thesis results….

Admission Fellow's Perspective

2009-03-04T13:58:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone. Here is a post from one of our Admission Fellows, Emma Perlmutter.

Hey everyone! My name is Emma, and I'm one of the awesome admission fellows here at Pitzer. As a second semester senior I'm currently in the process of writing an honors thesis for my major, Organizational Studies (which is basically a liberal arts, interdisciplinary way of doing a business major), on the effectiveness of Appreciative Inquiry as an method of evaluation. For the past couple of months I've been doing lots of library research with the aid of our very helpful Honnold-Mudd librarians, brainstorming ideas with my advisors, sending emails to leaders in the field, and I even attended the Positive Psychology Symposium at Claremont Graduate University, which had the founders and leaders of the field speaking. Unfortunately, the easy part is now over and I must start writing. Yuck.

Aside from being an Organizational Studies major I also have a minor in Economics. As one of the professors will be retiring at the end of the year, the school recently went through a job search to fill his position and had the final three candidates to campus in the past three weeks. Everyone on campus was invited to attend the job talks and attendance ranged from the Dean of Faculty to members of the Economics field group to students to members of the maintenance staff, and everyone's evaluation of the candidates was taken into consideration. I was invited by the field group to take a larger role in the selection process by eating lunch with the candidates after their talks in order for us to better get to know them and for them to get to know what Pitzer students are really like. Although the verdict is still out on who will be joining the Economics field group this fall, having met all three candidates I can say with complete confidence that no matter who is chosen they will make an excellent addition to the campus!

I hope that this was a good peek into what the life of a senior is like here at Pitzer and into our selection process for new faculty. If you have any question about the Economics or Organizational Studies field groups (or about anything related to Pitzer) please feel free to shoot me an email and give me a good distraction from writing my thesis!

Reading Time

2009-02-10T14:23:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone. I know it has been ages, but I had no idea what reading season actually entails and I have been busy. Allow me to fill you in. After we receive your wonderful applications and spend weeks on end putting them together, see previous pictures of piles of mail taller than I am, the Admission Counselors are finally ready to read. During reading season the admission counselors work from home, YAY!

At this point I must digress, and give a big thank you to our wonderful processing staff. While the counselors take off to read files, they are still here tackling those piles of credentials.

Now don't get too jealous, just because I get to work from home doesn't mean that life is easy. I have to read 135 files a week. That is a lot of reading. I must say, I have really enjoyed some of your essays. My name has even come up in a few of your supplements and it cheers me up every time.

To let you know, we do read everything in your application and we have a holistic approach to admission, so we have no formulas and every part of your application is considered. In fact, just to make sure you get your fair day in court, all the applications get read twice.

Then, every Thursday, our staff gets together and has a mini committee. This is where the two readers present your application and we make a final decision as a group.

As you can tell, I don't have as much to write about these days. So to keep the blog lively, I am going to have some of our Admission Fellows write entries. For those of you who haven't met the Admission Fellows, they are Seniors who conduct interviews, and information sessions and attend college fairs. Since this is their last semester of college, I figure I would allow them to tell you what is going on around campus and maybe share some of that knowledge they have gained over the last 4 years. You can check out their bios on our website.

https://fepzhal.pitzer.edu/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.pitzer.edu/admission/senior_fellows.asp

Congratulations of reaching your final semester of high school. Enjoy it, but not too much, we do still look at those last semester grades :)

Danny

I have lost my voice, but not my mind

2009-01-22T16:43:00.000-08:00

As the title implies, I have lost a bit of my voice today after conducting close to 30 interviews last weekend. This was the last chance to interview for regular decision. We conducted interviews in; Seattle, Portland, Santa Clara, Emeryville and Chicago, totaling 181 interviews. Go us! Most of my interviews were pretty good and it was a pleasure to meet all of you, but as I said, it is going to be tea for me for the next few days.

After conducting my 30 interviews, I realized that one questions kept coming up. Why did you choose Pitzer? So I figured I should tell my college search story. It is a perfect example of how a college visit can make or break a school, but might not always be a perfect representation of the school.

The first time I visited Pitzer I actually disliked the school because of the visit. In one day I visited Pomona, Claremont McKenna and Pitzer all in one day, in that order, doing tours and interviews at all three. Now that 5 years has past I can honestly admit that I was cranky by the time I got to Pitzer.

Once April 1 rolled around, I found out that I was accepted to my first choice school, which will remain nameless, and I was absolutely ecstatic. I went back and visited, for a second time, and completely changed my mind. The funny thing was that my first visit was what made me fall in love with the school and my second visit showed me that the school had everything I wanted, but wasn’t the right personality fit.

Since I then had no idea where I wanted to go, I started my search over again and came back to Pitzer for another visit. This time I saw everything I missed in my first visit. My second visit was on a gorgeous sunny day during the spring. It was right before finals, but students were still around campus and it felt like I had stepped onto the cover of a college guidebook.

I can still remember the exact moment I changed my mind about Pitzer. I was sitting on the mounds, the grassy area in the middle of campus, with three Pitzer students. One girl was outside tanning with a textbook almost as big as her head and two guys playing Frisbee. I jokingly turned to the girl and asked her why she had so much more work than the two guys. Before the girl could answer, one of the guys stopped and said, “No, I am in the middle of working on my thesis, but I just had to come outside and play 15 minutes of Frisbee.” Needless to say 15 minutes turned into half an hour, but then he went back inside, presumably to work on his thesis. After seeing this balance of work life and social life I stopped and looked around and realized that, without exception, every single person I could see was smiling. I figured if all these people can find a balance between work life and social life here and be this happy right before finals maybe I could be happy here too.

Once I got home, I started thinking about my visit and realized that I had floated between a number of different social groups and all of them were open. They all wanted to know my name, although some still called me prospie for convenience sake, don’t worry it is a term of endearment, they all wanted to know why I was interested in Pitzer and they all wanted to tell me about the school. No one was cliquey and everyone had positive things to say.

I was still nervous when I sent in my enrollment response card, this is the card you fill out saying what school you will attend, but from the moment I set foot on campus I knew I had made the right choice. I loved my college experience, obviously since I chose to remain at Pitzer after I graduated, and didn’t consider transferring once.

I hope my story is interesting. I know it sounds like something out of college book, but it really does happen from time to time. The message I want you to gain from this story, besides how awesome Pitzer is, is that sometimes you step onto a college campus and get that feeling that this place is home, but then you can still change your mind and other times you visit a school and since your timing is off you don’t get that feeling. Some people never get that feeling, but that doesn’t mean that the college you choose isn’t just as good a fit for you. So when you visit a college campus or are thinking back on your previous visits keep an objective frame of mind and know that there is more than one school that you would be happy at.

Now on to the winners of the Where in the World is Cecil the Sagehen. Drum roll please.

The winners are
Laura R
Micaela
Jacey
Janelle
J Rice
JustDeb

Congratulations

If you guys could all email me your addresses, do not post them on the blog, I can get your prizes in the mail.

My Vacation Part 2

2009-01-07T16:20:00.001-08:00

So I am very impressed by Laura’s reasoning skills. I was surprised that she figured out that I traveled to Belize over the holidays and climbed the high temple at Lamanai. It started pouring when we reached the temple so I had to climb it in the rain, but the view was well worth it.

By coincidence I even ended up wearing my Pitzer tee-shirt while climbing the ruins.

On top of climbing ruins (haha what a pun) I also did some fishing. Check out the three foot barracuda I caught. (The hand belongs to my Dad)

He was a nasty looking guy, but boy did he taste great.

The view was amazing while I ate him.

Overall it was am amazing vacation and got me ready to go through all that mail I showed you earlier this week. (And by the way, we are still going through it)

Since I am still shocked that someone figured out my last picture so quickly, I am going to add one final round of Where in the World is Cecil the Sagehen?

As you can probably tell, Cecil had to stay in Angel’s hotel room that day. It was a little bit cold for sagehens to be out, but I photoshopped him in for your pleasure. Can anyone guess where Angel and Cecil went for the holidays?

We love you all, but please don't call

2009-01-05T16:32:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year everyone!!!!! Welcome to 2009.

This means that all of your applications should be complete. We do know that a lot of people were having trouble with the common application, so we have decided to extend the deadline to Sunday, January 10th, at midnight PST. So if you haven’t finished that app, don’t despair, get working on it double time.

Now onto the title.

I know this is a stressful time of the year and you all want to know if we have received all of your application materials, but with how much mail we get, we won’t be able to check to see if we have received everything for at least two weeks. We were out of the office from December 24th through January 2nd. This means that we had 8 days worth of mail waiting for us upon our return. Take a look at how much mail that was for last Friday.

Here is Justin’s first trip to the mail room. It only took about 3-4 trips that morning.

Then the mail just starts to pile up.

And Cecil gets in the way making life more challenging.

So understand that we can’t possibly go through all that mail in one day. I mean even Arnaldo, Vice President of Admission and Financial Aid was in the back with a letter opener and date stamp.

He did an excellent job!

We were all working hard, even Cecil helped out.

Don’t forget even more mail came in during the afternoon.

After all the mail is opened it has to be alphabetized and entered into our computer system so that we can match it to your file.

The stack of credentials are huge!

So on behalf of myself and most other college admission counselors I know, please hold off on checking your application status for two weeks. If your teacher recommendations or school profile are running a little late, we aren’t going to blame you for that. As long as you have sent us your common app and supplement you don’t need to worry.

I also wanted to point out that the only city with available interview slots for January is Seattle, so if you want to be put on the waiting list for Emeryville, Santa Clara, Portland, DC or Chicago give us a call, but don’t be surprised if the list is long.

Now that the applications are due and we as counselors are no longer traveling, it is time to play the final round of where in the world is Cecil the Sagehen. This is the most difficult picture yet, so if you can get this perfectly I will automatically send you a Cecil. Be very specific. To be honest Cecil is actually not in this picture. He wouldn’t fit in my luggage, so we are really playing where in the world is Danny the Admission Counselor, but the principle is the same. (I was going to photoshop him in, but respect you guys too much to cheat.)

If no one gets it by Wednesday I will post a follow up picture, but it won’t be much easier.

Some Holiday Cheer from Pitzer College

2008-12-21T20:42:00.000-08:00

As I sit at home, excited for my winter vacation, I felt that one last blog post was in order before the new year. Since it is that time of year, I figured some festive cheer was exactly what was needed.

Although San Diego has amazing beaches, we never get the full festive winter spirit. While we are lacking a white Christmas, what we do have, is a very passionate Christmas enthusist who has built an amazing Christmas display. A neighbor has collected over 40,000 lights and joined forces with two of San Diego's most famous radio personalities, Jeff and Jer, to create a 19 minute light show on a loop. The music for the light show is on F.M. 98.5, is broadcast over a 3 house radius and the 40,000 lights and neon lasers are synched to the music broadcast on the radio. Hopefully this can bring you a little early Christmas cheer. The first video is longer, but the 2nd has the grand finale, so if you are going to watch only one, watch the 2nd.

Impressive, isn't it?

Being Jewish, I know this can be a difficult time of the year. Chanuka just isn't as much fun as Christmas. I mean lighting the menorah isn't quite as big as Christmas lights. Good news though! My mom found an amazing invention that allows us to take back the holiday season. Just put of these glasses, and it's Chanukah everywhere.

Here take a look.

No matter what holiday you celebrate or don't celebrate, have a happy holiday season.

Before I get on my flight, I wanted to share an article with you that Angel wrote for the Chronicle of Higher Education about the experience of fall travel. The whole purpose of this blog is to help you, the students, get a better idea of the admission process by telling you about our lives, I figured I should post it, even though it is a little late. I hope you enjoy it, I know I did.

I'm Tired, and So Are You
For people in admissions, fall means almost nonstop travel, and it's easy to forget why the work matters
By ANGEL B. PÉREZ
Dear Admissions Colleagues:
I write you today as I sit on a flight — one of the last legs of what feels like an endless fall recruitment season. I'm grateful to be sitting here. In fact, I almost wasn't.
The alumni-affairs office asked me to make a presentation to our alumni board on current issues in admissions at Pitzer College and how they compare to issues facing the nation. The presentation began at 10:45 a.m., and I had a 1:20 p.m. flight to New York out of LAX. I was able to persuade a friend of mine to accompany me to the campus and have the getaway car ready; I figured if I left by 11:15 a.m., I could make my flight.
At 11:35, I darted out of the building and jumped into the car. "I think we'll make it," I said nervously, as I changed clothes in the back seat. I got a few strange looks, but it was either that or wrinkle the suit I needed to wear a few more times that week.
I had a sandwich waiting in the car so I could have my lunch. Just as I bit into it, our car came to a halt, and I looked up to see major traffic on the freeway. So we did what every frantic traveler does: exited and took local streets to an alternative freeway, breaking every law and safety regulation in the process.
Thirty minutes before takeoff, I arrived at the largest airport in the United States hoping to get through security in a New York minute. What can I say? I'm an optimist. Just as I was taking my belt and shoes off and placing them through the metal detector, my name was called on the loudspeaker. That was not the kind of last call I'm used to hearing. I leaned toward the closest security officer I could find and whispered, "They're talking about me." She let me skip everyone in line, and I darted off through the terminal and made it to the gate seconds before the door closed.
Sitting in my seat, exhausted and dazed, one thought occurs to me: Why the heck do I do this?
As the plane pushes off from the gate and I begin to write, my mind flashes through images of the last few months of my life. I remember my two-week trip through New England, where I switched hotels every day and visited high schools in almost every state of the region. I remember my speedy one-day trip to Chicago to serve as a panelist at a high-school program. There was that one-city-a-day Claremont Colleges Receptions tour that tends to leave you wondering what time zone you are in.
Let's face it: It's been a long admissions season. I'm tired, and so are you. I see those droopy eyes as you pull into the parking lot early in the morning, having just landed after a long flight. I notice the slower pace in your stroll as you greet a family visiting the campus on a Saturday morning. You smile in your usual manner, but I know you're thinking that you can't remember the last time you had a weekend without work. Being weary this time of year is common in the admissions business. I write to acknowledge that, and to let you know, it's OK to admit it. But as I stare out of the airplane window, I begin to recall the many recent experiences I've had that explain why our work is invaluable and why it does indeed matter.
I remember a recent lunch meeting I had with a new student at Pitzer. She wanted to thank our office for helping her during the application process and for, ultimately, admitting her. We had a wonderful conversation and as we strolled out of the dining hall, we bumped into another first-year student. After my lunch partner introduced us, the student said, "Angel, I already know you. You and your staff changed my life!"
Not knowing how to respond, I asked, "How do you suppose we did that?"
"During my application process," she said, "I met with you and several other members of your staff. All of you gave me the confidence to apply to this school and held my hand along the way. Then you folks admitted me and my life is significantly different. I can't thank you enough."
Then I think about the amazing students I have met during my travels this fall. I can clearly recall a conversation I had with a young man at his high school in Vermont. "I'll be honest with you," he said, "I'm from Vermont, and although I love it here, my world is so limited. I think it's time to see the world." We had the most inspiring conversation about his hopes and dreams.
That kind of conversation is why we travel. We reach out to families and jet around the country because the age of information technology hasn't obliterated the power of personal contact.
We travel because when we meet a student who is the perfect fit for our college, we can make the case to fly her to the campus to visit during our diversity program. On one of the few nights we are home this fall, we stay late in the office to talk to her dad on the phone for an hour because he is scared of letting his little girl go to school on the West Coast. His family has already made a great leap from Africa to live on the East Coast of the United States, and he can't fathom letting his daughter live five hours farther by plane.
We allow ourselves to stay late at a college fair, knowing we have a long drive back to our hotel through dark isolated roads because a mother needs to hear that although the economy is in turmoil, her son can indeed afford to go to college. We hold people's hands, calm them down, and reassure them, it's going to be OK.
As the plane finally reaches its cruising altitude, I think back to my recent meeting with a high-school counselor who came to visit the office. She's a brand new counselor and works with an underrepresented population in her hometown. She took it upon herself to start visiting colleges and learning about the admissions process. She needed resources and a mentor, and even though she didn't know it, she needed a reminder that what she was doing was valuable. A 15-minute meeting turned into a two-hour conference.
The business of college admissions is structurally complex, and it is compartmentalized into long, intense seasons. The highs are extremely high and the lows can be downright overwhelming; it's easy to feel defeated and worn down, and to forget the transformative nature of our work.
Therefore, I ask you to take this moment to stop and turn off all the distractions that cloud your vision of the bigger picture. Before we move on to the next exhausting phase of our admissions year, before we greet our final fall visitors, before we begin to alphabetize thousands of credentials, before we start entering the data on those applications, before we calculate the thousands of dollars of financial aid needed, before we are curled over our kitchen tables with hundreds of applications, before we start obsessing over the numbers, before the news organizations start calling in search of a story angle on another extremely selective admissions year, I ask you to take a moment to breathe and exhale.
Acknowledge the impact of your work. What you do matters. In fact, I've been told it changes lives.
Angel B. Pérez is director of admission at Pitzer College.

Oh the weather outside is frightful!

2008-12-19T09:02:00.000-08:00

Time for random trivia about Danny! [I am still hijacking this blog and I am not sure that the following is really trivia. This is more of a random fact about Danny- JV] I am a big fan of Skiing and Snowboarding and there is finally snow on Mt Baldy. Baldy is the closest mountain to Pitzer’s campus, about a 20 minute drive to the peak. It is the pretty mountain you can see in the background on many Pitzer pictures. Don’t believe me? Check that road piece you got from us at a school visit or college fair.
Check it out. This picture, although low quality and taken under poor lighting conditions, was snapped from the walkway of our new residence halls.

Where else can you have 80 degree weather most of the year and still step outside and see snow for a few months? (P.S. Fri Morning it is still brisk, but the sun is out)

You can tell some students got excited about the snow because this is a sight you don’t usually see on campus.Now if you replaced the sleds with surfboards, it is nothing new. See this is one of the many reasons that SO Cal is the best place to live. (haha take that NOR Cal) [Wow, a throwdown! –JV]

Well snow aside, let’s get back to the admission office.

Regular decision files are already piling up. We even started to read some of the complete ones. Notice the stacks and how mine is the biggest.

Go AZ, UT, NV, MI, FL, TX, Long Beach, San Fernando Valley and Inland Empire students! Way to get your files in early. [The stack two over to the left is my pile. Do we need to talk about my students here? PA, MD, DC, VA, GA, TN, OR, and Santa Barbara I am a bit disappointed. I appreciate that you are trying to keep my work load low near the holidays, but still, I need you to represent. I want the top 5 out of California states to be mine this coming year. Help me out! If I do, Danny will take me to lunch. –JV]

Besides the daunting piles of mail coming in everyday, life has been moving at a slightly slower pace. Early decision letters are in the mail, so they should be arriving soon. (And no, that does not mean you should call us to ask if you got in. I know it is exciting, but you will find out soon enough) In fact, I have a little surprise for you. We got done a little ahead of schedule, so the letters were mailed out on Wed. SURPRISE!

We have also finished conducting interviews and there are very few tours coming in, so the office is quiet and we are mainly putting your applications together and reading files. It is a little lonely because most student workers have time off to study for finals.

I just have to say. I LOVE OUR STUDENT WORKERS!! [Me too! –JV]

I though you would enjoy finding out about a new competition going on in my office. Apparently my digs have become the hot new place to study for finals and some of our student workers have been competing for its use. This is great because I came in after a long weekend of reading to find this amazing note, which cheered me up to no end.

Here is a picture of Jenna for reference. [Jenna is also one of the Overnight Coordinators. Ask her sometime about her work at a cult. She’ll have some great stories for you. –JV]

Then the next day I came in and found this note. (and cookies)

In case you haven’t met Emma, she is one of our Admission Fellows and you can find her picture online. [I should have a pithy comment about Emma here, but I can’t think of one. –JV]

The next morning, Ben was feeling slightly jealous and wrote me this.

Everyone say hi to Ben. [Nice picture Ben. Ben is one of the Overnight Coordinators that I supervise. –JV]

To top it all off this morning, Thrusday, I came across 2 notes!

[Ben gets a bonus point for a “Dark Knight” reference. –JV]
And finally

So I officially declare Emma the winner of the annual random notes in Danny’s office competition.

[Student workers, we need to talk too. What is wrong with my office? It is colorful. It has an iPod dock. There is a cool poster from a Ryan Adams concert last year here in Claremont. I’ve got a lovely view of the parking lot. Don’t forget who hired you. –JV]

While we are on the topic of competition, let’s play another game of Where in the World is Cecil the Sagehen. Where is Cecil this week? (be very specific. Very Very specific)

There may be one last post before I am off for the Holidays, so if you don't hear from me before then. Have a happy holiday season.

AND THE WINNER IS......

2008-12-16T13:27:00.000-08:00

The winner of the Haiku Contest is……Justin Voss.

This means he gets to publish his back up haiku. (and will forever lord this victory over me) [That’s right Daniel! My superior haiku truly encapsulated the essence of Pitzer through the experience of the Grove House. I would like to thank all the little people that made this victory happen. Namely, myself for creating such a wonderful haiku.- JV]
(As one of Justin’s many rewards for winning the contest, I am letting him hijack my blog all week and add whatever creative comments he wants. Note creative comments, not constructive *sigh*)

Blue bird of the night
Show me all your sagehen might
Best run out of sight.

Justin won with 2 votes, followed by a tie for second place between Jasmin and Angel, who both got 1 vote, and in last place me, with 0 votes. [Wait, only 2 people voted for me? Well, a win is a win. – JV]

The order of the haikus was:

Haiku #1: Jasmin
Haiku #2: Danny
Haiku #3: Justin
Haiku #4: Angel

This means that Jacey guessed the order correctly. Very very impressive Jacey, I guess you know us too well.
I also liked the haiku you posted to the blog [me too, we may have to steal this for something- JV].

An education
of art, dance, music, and thought
breeds the culture sought
-by Jacey

What I am confused about, is how everyone single person guessed which haiku was mine, and yet no one voted for it. What’s up guys?????? [Danny, did you read yours? –JV]

All bitterness aside, we are holding our committee for Early Decision this week. Committee is a very misleading title. It sounds so soft and friendly, but after discussing files for 5 hours the title takes on a whole new sinister meaning. On the plus side we get to come to work in casual dress. YAY!

Take a look at us putting together the acceptance packets

[How come I have to do all the hard work?- JV]

So remember boys and girls, when you get those letters in the mail, it was the Admission Counselors who shed blood, sweat and tears (and suffered many paper cuts) to get you that nice acceptance packet. The letters will be in the mail by this Friday, December 19th, so don’t start checking those mailboxes quite yet.

Since we are rapidly running out of time for Where in the World is Cecil the Sagehen, I decided to go with the trickier to two photos. So where is Cecil today? [Let the record show that most of these pictures have been mine. If only Ansel Adams took pictures of Sagehens across the country, imagine how famous he could be- JV]

Stay tuned for more posts later this week.

Haiku Contest

2008-12-06T17:05:00.000-08:00

You have waited for one whole week.

Now the eagerly anticipated Haiku Contest begins.

Today we have four haikus for you, written by Angel, Justin, Jasmin and myself. Each haiku is posted anonymously. It is your job to vote for your favorite. Anyone who votes will get a point for our Where in the World is Cecil the Sagehen competition (and the competition ends at the end of December so now is the time to get your points in and win your very own Cecil).

You can also win two extra bonus point if you can correctly match each haiku to the counselor that wrote it. And I will give you another point if you can include a haiku in your answer.

Haiku #1

Organic Garden

Grassy Mounds, Murals, Fountains

Think Pitzer, Think you

Haiku #2

The Sagehen flies free

Pitzer is the place to be

Come and you will see

Haiku #3

Pitzer’s old Grove House

Full of cookies and coffee

Meet me after class.

Haiku #4

Pitzer changes world

With an eye on the future

You too can thrive here

They are in a random order, but vote for me! Votes will be tallied next Fri, December 12^th. So be sure to check back.

Happy Turkey Day

2008-11-26T16:07:00.000-08:00

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!!!!!

So it is official! Mark your calendars! November 26!
Winter has begun in Southern California
(Isn’t life grand)

Today was our first heavy day of rain. I am a little confused though. It was pouring when we came back from lunch, but now it is sunny, lightly showering and about 72 degrees outside.

Weather be damned, our tour still left on time. Chris, our tour guide, was loving the rain and started off without using his umbrella. Isn’t he great?

So to sweeten your Thanksgiving feast, we in the Pitzer Admission Office have decided to hold a competition. This competition was Justin’s idea, so we let him write the introduction.

Cecil the Sagehen
Haiku contest on the blog
Best counselor wins

That’s right boys and girls we are having a haiku competition.
For those of you who are unfamiliar with the art of haiku, a haiku is a form of Japanese poetry consisting of seventeen syllables in three metric phrases of 5, 7 then 5. In Japanese they are written in a single vertical line, while in English they are broken down into three sentences.
For example

Haikus are super
Five, seven, five syllables
Danny is the best J

And since I don’t want Justin to become the center of the blog…. I figured I would include another haiku of my own and this time it’s seasonal.

Turkeys taste good
Cecil is not a turkey
Don’t eat the Sagehens

So next week each counselor will write their own haiku and I will anonymously post them to the blog. The winner will be decided by you, the students, and whichever haiku receives the most votes wins bragging rights and the ultimate respect of the office. (we might have to make a crown)

Now that I have given you something to look forward to, here are some pictures from the second Preview Pitzer Day on Nov 14.

(President Trombley's Speech)

Well before you go enjoying your turkey, lets play another round of

Where in the World is Cecil the Sagehen.

This week is extra hard so double points if you get it correct.

Where is Cecil this Week?